SPIRITUAL   CHRISTIANITY. 


LECTURES 


SPIRITUAL  CHRISTIANITY, 


BY 


ISAAC    TAYLOR, 

II 

AUTHOR  OF  "  PHYSICAL  THEORY  OF  ANOTHER  LIFE,"  "  NATURAL  HISTORY 
OF  ENTHUSIASM,"  "  HOME  EDUCATION,"  ETC. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  200,  BROADWAY. 
1841. 


H.  LUDWIG.  PRINTKB 

72  vesey-st.,  N.  Y. 


T3 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


THESE  Lectures  were  delivered  at  the  instance 
of  the  Committee  of  the  "  London  City  Mission," 
and  if  that  Committee  be  held  responsible  for 
having  made  the  request,  its  responsibility  there 
ceases.  For  whatever  the  Lectures  may  contain 
the  Lecturer  alone  is  answerable,  and  he  supposes 
it  not  unlikely  that  more  than  two  or  three  passages 
might  be  adduced  with  which  neither  that  Com- 
mittee, as  a  body,  nor  the  members  of  it  as  indi- 
viduals, would  fully  concur.  The  Lecturer  confi- 
dently hopes,  nevertheless,  that,  in  frankly  express- 
ing his  sincere  convictions,  as  he  is  accustomed  to 
do,  he  has  not  infringed  the  proprieties  of  the 


VI  ADVERTISEMENT. 

position  he  occupied,    as  called  forward  on  this 
occasion  by  them. 

In  so  calling  him  forth,  his  much-esteemed 
friends  were  aware  that  the  Lecturer  has  never 
been  used  to  speak  the  language  of  any  one 
section  of  the  religious  commonwealth ;  and 
while  well  assured  of  his  firm  attachment  to 
the  great  principles  of  the  Gospel,  as  recovered 
by  the  Reformers,  they  would  anticipate,  as 
probable,  some  freedom  of  expression,  on  parti- 
cular points. 

It  is  due,  as  well  to  those  who  honoured  the 
Lecturer  with  their  attendance,  as  to  his  friends 
of  the  "  London  City  Mission,"  to  state  distinctly 
that,  in  revising  the  Lectures  for  the  press,  he 
has  not  merely  made  many  verbal  corrections, 
but  has  introduced  more  than  a  few  passages 
tending,  as  he  hopes,  to  strengthen  or  illustrate 


ADVERTISEMENT.  Vll 

his  argument ;  and  it  is  among  these  added  passa- 
ges that  will  be  found  the  more  distinct  expressions 
of  his  individual  views  on  points  connected  with 
the  present  aspect  of  our  English  Christianity. 

It  can  scarcely  be  necessary  to  forewarn  the 
reader  not  to  look,  in  these  Lectures,  either  for 
a  systematic  digest  of  Theology,  or  for  a  formal 
biblical  argument,  in  support  of  the  several  articles 
of  an  evangelic  creed.  The  Lecturer  has  not 
thought  himself  qualified  to  undertake  any  such 
task ;  nor  would  any  endeavour  of  the  kind  have 
consisted  with  the  professed  intention  of  the 
Lectures,  which  were  projected  with  the  hope  of 
directing  the  attention  of  well-educated  persons  to 
the  great  principles  of  the  Gospel ;  and  especially 
as  at  this  moment  put  in  jeopardy  by  the  wide 
diffusion  of  opinions  which  would  substitute  the 
"  vain  inventions  "  of  antiquity,  for  the  purity  and 
simplicity  of  apostolic  Christianity. 


Till  ADVERTISEMENT. 

Making  no  pretensions  therefore  to  speak  as  a 
master  of  Theology,  the  Lecturer  has  ventured, 
as  he  supposes  a  private  Christian  may  do  with- 
out blame,  and  especially  if  his  years  have  been 
devoted  to  religious  studies  —  to  present  some 
broad  views  of  those  principal  articles  of  belief, 
in  the  truth  and  import  of  which  all  Christians 
are  alike  concerned. 


STANFORD  RIVERS, 
April,  1841. 


CONTENTS. 


FIRST  LECTURE.  PAGE 

THE  EXTERIOR  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  SPIRITUAL  CHRISTIANITY      .    .    11 

SECOND  LECTURE. 

THE  TRUTHS  PECULIAR  TO  SPIRITUAL  CHRISTIANITY     ......    89 

THIRD  LECTURE. 
THE  ETHICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  SPIRITUAL  CHRISTIANITY    .    .    .139 

FOURTH  LECTURE. 

SPIRITUAL  CHRISTIANITY  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  AT  THE  PRESENT 
MOMENT •    .  187 


;NOTES. 

NOTE  TO  PAGE  51 .    , *239 

NOTE  TO  PAGE  58 ....,.:  241 

NOTE  TO  PAGE  100    .  .  243 


THE 

FIRST    LECTURE. 


ON    THE    EXTERIOR    CHARACTERISTICS   OF 
SPIRITUAL   CHRISTIANITY. 


SPIRITUAL  CHRISTIANITY. 


FIRST  LECTURE. 


THERE  may  be  those  who,  in  comparing  the 
physical,  or  even  the  moral  condition  of  civilized  and 
of  barbarous  nations,  would  give  the  preference  to 
the  latter  ;  alleging  that,  on  the  whole,  more  enjoy- 
ment is  secured,  and  less  suffering  entailed  by  a 
lower,  than  by  a  more  advanced  development  of  the 
social  system.  But  let  such  a  question  be  deter- 
mined as  it  may,  yet  is  it  certain  that,  except  as 
the  consequence  of  national  catastrophes,  sudden 
or  slow  in  their  operation,  no  community  recedes 
from  the  position  it  has  reached ;  or,  by  a  voluntary 
act,  renounces  knowledge  and  the  arts,  and  em- 
braces barbarism. 

Advancement,  which  is  the  Law,  as  well  of  the 
human  mind,  individually,  as  of  the  social  system, 
forbids  a  deliberate  return  to  what  is  more  simple, 
2 


14  ONSPIRI  TUAL 

after  what  is  more  complex  has  once  been  attained  ; 
for,  to  step  back  on  its  path,  would  imply  that  a 
people  should  not  merely  cease  to  desire  what  they 
have  learned  to  enjoy ;  but  that  they  should  consent 
no  longer  to  know,  what  they  had  ascertained  to  be 
true  ;  and  should  learn  to  believe  as  true,  what  they 
have  discovered  to  be  false ;  and  should  persuade 
themselves  to  act  in  a  manner  which  experience  has 
taught  them  is  equally  absurd  and  mischievous. 
Even,  therefore,  if  savage  life  did  present  itself  to 
the  view  of  a  civilized  people  as  a  paradise  ;  yet 
between  it  and  themselves  there  is  interposed  a  gulf, 
into  which,  indeed,  many  a  nation  has  been  plunged 
headlong,  but  which  none  can  pass  by  spontaneous 
movement. 

There  may  too  be  those,  and  perhaps  they  are 
more  than  a  few,  who,  knowing  little  of  Christi- 
anity except  in  its  incidental  connexion  with  secular 
affairs,  over  which  it  too  often  throws  perplexity  ; — 
knowing  nothing  of  its  truth,  or  its  energies,  or  its 
beauty ;  and  not  knowing,  or  not  considering,  that 
every  other  form  of  religion  is  utterly  destitute  as 
well  of  truth,  as  of  any  power  to  bless,  imagine  that 
an  equitable  comparison  between  the  religion  of 
Europe,  and  the  religions  of  Asia,  would  exhibit 
but  an  ambiguous  advantage  in  favour  of  the  former. 
Or  such  persons  may  persuade  themselves  that  an 
innocuous  pantheism,  upon  the  bosom  of  which  all 


*  CHRISTIANITY.  15 

consciences  might  be  lulled,  would  indeed  be  a 
happy  exchange  for  the  stirring  verities  of  the  Bible. 

Yet  even  if  it  were  so,  no  such  exchange  can 
ever  be  offered  to  our  choice  ;  for  Christianity,  like 
civilization,  and  in  a  much  deeper  sense,  is  a  move- 
ment forward.  Christianity  is  a  system  of  truths 
which  has  carried  the  human  mind  as  far  in  ad- 
vance of  ancient  philosophy,  as  it  has  of  false  reli- 
gion. It  is  no  scheme  of  vague  opinions,  which 
may  be  indifferently  refuted,  or  admitted ;  but  a 
progress  in  abstract  truth — and  a  progress  in  moral 
sentiment — and  a  progress  in  manners,  which, 
though  its  future  course  may  be  arrested  by  cala- 
mities falling  upon  the  human  family,  could  not  be 
freely  renounced  but  by  an  act  of  desperation,  fatal 
to  the  social  existence  of  the  people  that  should 
attempt  it. 

Christianity  is  a  development,  and  the  only  deve- 
lopment ever  yet  given,  of  those  higher  faculties  of 
human  nature,  which  although  they  may  long  slum- 
ber, yet  when  once  awakened,  will  not  be  curbed 
by  the  limitations  of  time  ; — they  will  not ;  for  their 
scope  lies  far  forward  in  the  field  of  Eternity. 

Christianity,  like  civilization,  may  be  overborne 
at  different  points,  or  turned  from  its  course  ;  but  it 
must  recover  its  lost  ground.  It  is  a  guardian 
power,  which  has  long  been  carrying  the  human 
family,  as  in  its  bosom,  over  a  rugged  road,  and 


16  ON     SPIRITUAL 

beneath  inclement  skies  ;  but  will  not  be  stayed 
until  it  have  fulfilled  its  trust. 

We  grant  indeed  that  a  general  decay  of  religious 
belief,  throughout  Europe,  is  an  event  which  does 
not  want  some  indications  of  probability.  But  if 
we  suppose  it  to  have  taken  place,  its  visible  effects 
would  everywhere  be  those  of  a  turn  of  tide ;  or  the 
reflux  of  a  deep  current,  heretofore  setting  heaven- 
ward (how  stormy  soever  may  have  been  its  sur- 
face, or  sluggish  its  movement.)  It  would  be  a 
reflux  towards  whatever  is  sensual,  selfish,  frivo- 
lous, and  ferocious.  Like  the  loss  of  civilization — 
the  loss  of  Christianity  would  be  equivalent  to  a 
ceasing  to  know,  a  ceasing  to  feel,  a  ceasing,  in  the 
best  sense,  to  live  ;  or  the  living  on  a  principle  con- 
fessedly earthly,  after  a  higher  principle  has  been 
recognized. 

At  this  moment  the  hold  of  Christianity  upon  the 
convictions,  the  moral  sentiments,  and  the  manners 
of  several  of  the  nations,  called  Christian,  is  in  the 
last  degree  feeble  ;  nevertheless,  so  long  as,  even 
in  such  countries,  the  Gospel  is  yet  publicly  regard- 
ed as  true,  and  so  long  as  its  decisions  are  appealed 
to  as  of  divine  authority,  the  community,  low  as  it 
may  have  sunk  in  virtue,  has  still  its  eye  directed 
upward  toward  that  which  is  purer  and  more  ele- 
vated, as  well  in  faith  as  in  morals,  than  any  thing 
else  around  it.  Even,  therefore,  to  such  communi- 


CHRISTIANITY.  17 

ties,  the  ceasing  to  be  Christian  would  not  be  the 
coming  to  a  stand  merely  ;  but  the  commencement 
of  a  descent  towards  an  abyss. 

But  to  a  community  within  which  the  Gospel  has 
widely  diffused  itself  through  the  opinions,  habits, 
and  affections  of  the  mass,  and  in  which  it  intensely 
affects  the  moral  energies  of  thousands  ;  the  ceasing 
to  be  Christian  would  be  a  dissolution,  political, 
social,  domestic  :  it  would  be — national  death. 

In  this  country  every  institution  which  at  once 
fortifies  and  adorns  our  social  condition,  has  been 
constructed  on  the  supposition  of  a  flow  and  pres- 
sure in  this  one  direction  ; — that  is  to  say,  toward 
whatever  is,  or  is  assumed  to  be,  true  in  religion, 
and  pure  in  morals  : — every  slope  in  the  basement 
of  the  political  building  is  adapted  to  this,  and  to  no 
other  movement  of  the  waters  : — should  they  turn, 
there  is  not  an  embankment  which  must  not  yield, 
and  add  its  fragments  to  the  general  ruin. 

Throughout  southern  Europe,  where  an  almost 
stagnant  neap-tide  of  moral  feeling  has  for  ages 
covered  the  surface  of  society,  the  turn  toward  open 
Atheism  might  show  itself  only  in  the  drooping  of 
heads,  this  way,  instead  of  that,  upon  ecclesiastical 
levels  ;  but  it  could  not  be  so  in  England.  Eng- 
land, and  her  affluence  at  home,  and  her  influence 
through  the  world,  and  her  bright  cluster  of  ancient 
honours  ;  England,  and  her  pure  domestic  affec- 
2* 


18  ,ON     SPIRITUAL 

tions,  and  home  felicity,  and  her  generous  temper, 
and  her  wide  philanthropy  ;  England,  her  power 
and  her  embellishments,  we  may  be  assured — is 
fated  along  with  the  Gospel. — The  waters  of  the 
sanctuary  stand  breast  high  around  her,  and  should 
they  fall  off,  she  herself  falls,  to  rise  no  more. 

In  this,  if  in  no  other  country,  Christianity,  much 
as  it  is  dishonoured,  yet  rules  in  theology,  and  is 
the  standard  of  morals,  and  gives  sanction  to  law  ; 
and,  as  an  arbiter,  acknowledged  by  all,  mediates 
between  angry  factions.  But  more  than  this,  it  is 
by  far  the  most  profound  of  the  forces  now  at  work 
within  the  social  system ; — it  is  a  force  not  con- 
trollable by  any  secular,  or  ordinary  means,  inas- 
much as,  for  the  sake  of  it,  thousands  amongst  us, 
if  challenged  to  do  so,  would  relinquish  goods,  and 
life  itself.  Amid  our  very  agitations  it  still  conso- 
lidates its  power  ;  and  even  spurious  zeal,  (if  there 
be  any)  breaks  up  the  ground  for  its  advances. 
Atheism  herself  has  lately  strengthened  it  by  a  re- 
action ;  while  the  sudden,  and  unlocked  for  revival, 
in  our  times,  of  ancient  superstitions,  directs  a  new 
attention  to  its  simple  truths.  Christianity  comes 
to  our  times  as  the  survivor  of  all  systems,  and  after 
confronting,  in  turn,  every  imaginable  form  of  error, 
each  of  which  has  gone  to  its  almost  forgotten  place 
in  history — itself  alone  lives. 

In  philosophic  scorn  we  may  turn  from  the  peru- 


CHRISTIANITY.  19 

sal  of  the  history  of  Christianity,  during  its  eighteen 
centuries  past,  blessing  ourselves  in  a  thence-de- 
rived indifference  towards  all  religion.  But  feelings 
such  as  these  spring  from  modes  of  thinking  that 
are  loose  and  unphilosophical.  What  we  should 
discern  in  the  course  of  events,  on  the  stage  of 
European  affairs,  during  this  lapse  of  time,  is — not 
so  much  a  series  of  interested  frauds,  of  imbecile 
illusions,  of  fanatical  violences,  borrowing  a  sanc- 
tion from  religion ;  but  rather  a  slow  movement,  of 
vast  compass,  yet  tending  always  towards  a  high 
moral  end,  however  remote,  and  which  higher  end 
it  is  now  visibly  approaching.  We  have  before  us, 
in  this  history,  a  power  which,  even  when  the  most 
enfeebled  or  perverted,  could  lend  a  grandeur  even 
to  folly,  and  a  sublimity  to  extravagance ;  which 
has  often  imparted  the  energies  of  virtue  to  crimes  ; 
which  has  never  visited  mankind  with  a  scourge, 
without  bringing  up  a  blessing  ;  and  which  now  at 
length  stands  forward  in  no  other  character  than  as 
the  reprover  of  violence,  and  of  oppression,  and  of 
impurity  ;  and  as  the  guardian  of  whatever  is  most 
holy  and  happy.  Its  spirit  and  tendency,  which 
once  might  seem  ambiguous,  are  now,  by  universal 
acknowledgment,  simply  benign. 

But  we  are  still  reminded  of  the  errors,  or,  to  use 
the  objector's  own  word,  the  inconsistencies  of 
Christians,  even  in  these  times,  when,  as  we  allege, 


£0  ON     SPIRITUAL 

our  religion  has  recovered,  in  great  measure,  its 
pristine  purity.  Yet  justly  interpreted,  this  charge 
conveys  the  objector's  own  latent  feeling,  that 
Christianity  is,  what  we  are  affirming  it  to  be,  an 
idea  of  perfection,  which  is  in  progress  to  exhibit 
its  perfect  symmetry.  The  objector  means  to  say, 
that,  should  the  time  ever  come  when  the  religion 
of  Christ  shall  have  mastered  whatever  now  op- 
poses its  influence,  and  shall  reign  triumphant,  in  its 
own  splendour,  all  men  will  have  reached,  under 
its  guidance,  a  high  stage  of  moral  excellence. 
The  objector  means  to  say  that,  should  he  survive 
to  so  happy  a  day,  he  himself,  urged  forward  in 
the  general  movement,  will  have  become  wise. 

The  same  momentous  fact,  namely,  That  the 
moral  energies  of  the  Gospel  are,  in  great  part,  yet 
to  be  developed,  indirectly  attested  as  it  is  even  by 
its  opponents,  is  most  cordially  admitted  by  its 
friends  ;  who  individually  acknowledge,  with  humi- 
liation, their  personal  falling  short  of  the  rule  of 
their  profession.  Or,  if  we  listen  to  those  whose 
office  it  is  to  urge  this  rule  upon  others,  evidence  to 
the  same  effect  is  every  day  borne  by  all ;  for  every 
pulpit  exhortation,  every  didactic  treatise,  every 
urgent  appeal  made  to  the  Christian  community, 
as  such ;  and  every  incitement  to  zeal  and  diligence 
in  works  of  charity,  speaks  the  same  language,  and 
attests  the  deep  conviction  of  each  Christian  bosom 


CHRISTIANITY.  21 

that  the  heavenward  impulses  of  the  Gospel  are  in 
progress,  only,  towards  their  consummation  in  the 
virtue  and  happiness  of  mankind. 

What  then  are  the  genuine  elements  of  this 
power,  which,  by  the  confession  of  all,  is  carrying 
forward  the  social  system  towards  goodness  and 
felicity  ?  WHAT  is  CHRISTIANITY  ? 

In  the  present  instance  we  have  consented  to 
employ  a  compound  phrase,  and  are  to  speak  of 
Spiritual  Christianity. — Have  we  then  in  view  cer- 
tain refinements  upon  the  broad  principles  of  the 
Gospel  ?  Or  is  it  our  purpose  to  recommend  some 
scheme  of  piety,  elaborately  imagined,  and  deli- 
cately framed,  and  eligible  for  the  few,  and  barely 
to  be  understood  even  by  them  ?  Indeed  it  is  not. 
— We  have  no  such  purpose.  We  are  not  instruct- 
ed to  be  the  expositors  or  champions  of  partial  no- 
tions, or  of  private  conceits,  or  of  fond  peculiarities, 
or  of  mystifications  ;  or  of  anything  that  does  not 
lie  clearly  upon  the  surface  of  the  inspired  pages. 
We  are  of  no  party  ;  we  yield  undue  homage  to  no 
names  ;  we  have  no  unconfessed  solicitudes,  no  in- 
direct purposes  ;  we  challenge  for  our  faith  and 
doctrine  CATHOLICITY,  in  the  highest  and  best  sense 
which  that  abused  word  may  bear. 

By  Spiritual  Christianity,  therefore,  we  mean 
nothing  more,  (and  we  can  mean  nothing  less)  than 
— Christianity  itself:  Christianity  in  its  simplicity, 


22  ON     SPIRITUAL 

in  its  grandeur,  in  its  integrity,  in  its  beauty. 
Christianity,  as  it  is  truth  absolute,  truth  eternal, 
truth  of  infinite  moment  to  every  man,  and  intelli- 
gible to  every  man. 

In  proof  of  the  breadth  of  the  view  which  we 
mean  to  take  of  the  Gospel,  we  bind  ourselves  to 
ask  for  no  practical  concessions  in  behalf  of  Spi- 
ritual Christianity  which  may  not  be  demanded,  as 
a  necessary  inference  from  some  one  of  the  prin- 
ciples that,  without  a  doubt,  are  its  visible  charac- 
teristics. We  inquire  then  what  these  visible 
characteristics  are  ? 


I. 


In  reply,  We  say,  FIRST,  that  CHRISTIANITY  is 
A  RELIGION  OF  FACTS  ;  and  we  use  the  term  in  its 
plain  historic  sense.  Christianity  touches  the  affec- 
tions, and  binds  the  consciences  of  men,  on  no  other 
plea  than  that  of  its  being  a  declaration  of  facts  ; 
and  these,  either  long  past,  or  now  passing ;  or 
certainly  anticipated  as  yet  impending. 

We  have  not  therefore  before  us  either  a  theory 
of  abstract  principles,  or  a  system  of  sentiments, 
selected  as  excellent  and  refined,  from  among  other 
eligible  modes  of  feeling.  We  have  not  to  do  with 
a  congeries  of  the  best  things  of  all  systems,  or 
with  a  convenient  summary  of  the  product  of  the 


CHRISTIANITY.  23 

wisdom  of  all  times.  We  have  not  to  recommend 
a  rule  for  those  who  may  think  good  to  adopt  it. 
We  have  before  us  nothing  but  a  series  of  facts, 
and  the  just  consequences  of  these  facts.  Chris- 
tianity is  historically  true — it  is  true  in  its  own 
sense ;  or  it  can  have  no  claim  upon  our  se- 
rious regard  ;  and  if,  in  vindicating  the  high  claim 
it  advances,  we  cannot  maintain  our  position  on 
open  ground,  accessible  to  all  minds,  we  fail  by  our 
own  showing ;  or,  rather  let  it  be  said  that,  irre- 
spective of  the  ability,  or  the  want  of  ability,  of  any 
single  advocate  of  Christian  principles,  the  Gospel 
demands  our  submission,  purely  ON  THE  GROUND 

OF    ITS    HISTORIC   TRUTH. 

Is  THEN  CHRISTIANITY  HISTORICALLY  TRUE  ? 

In  the  present  instance  we  do  not  hold  ourselves 
obliged  to  undertake  an  argument  so  often,  and  so 
conclusively  conducted ;  but  rather  we  suppose  our- 
selves entitled  to  assume  this  as  granted  ;  neverthe- 
less, we  must,  for  a  moment,  trace  a  single  line  of 
connexion  between  the  historical  truth  of  the  Gos- 
pel, and  those  principles  of  our  moral  nature,  to 
which  an  appeal  is  necessarily  made  in  asserting 
the  reality  of  spiritual  religion. 

What  is  it  then  which  the  question  concerning 
the  truth  of  Christianity  supposes  to  be  doubtful ; 
or  what  is  it  which  can  be  regarded  as  open  to  ar- 


24  ON     SPIRITUAL 

gument  among  those  who  are  at  once  well  informed, 
and  candid  ? — Not  the  actual  existence  of  Christi- 
anity, as  a  visible  institute,  up  through  the  course 
of  time,  from  the  present  age  to  that  of  the  Julian 
Caesars.  Nothing  within  the  range  of  history — 
nothing  mathematically  demonstrated,  is  more  cer- 
tain than  is  the  series  of  facts  to  which  we  now 
refer.  Thus  far  then,  we  presume,  there  can  be 
no  controversy,  or  none  amongst  educated  persons. 
Let  church  history  be  what  it  may  in  its  qualities, 
assuredly  it  is  history — and  this,  close  up  to  the 
moment  of  its  alleged  origination.* 

What  then  is  it  that  may  be  further  questionable  ? 
Is  it  the  antiquity  and  genuineness  of  the  literary 
remains  comprised  in  the  canon  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment? If  there  be  indeed  room  for  reasonable 
controversy  on  this  ground,  the  demur,  be  it  what 
it  may,  must  be  dealt  with,  not  in  the  mass  ;  but  in 
detail ;  not  in  the  mode  of  vague  suppositions  ;  but 
in  that  of  a  rigorous  attention  to  every  particle  of 
the  evidence,  as  severally  bearing  upon  each  sepa- 
rate portion  of  the  document ; — upon  each  book, 
each  epistle,  each  paragraph,  sentence,  word,  sylla- 

*  The  testimony  of  the  Roman  historian,  to  this  effect,  is 
by  none  called  in  question.  Auctor  nominis  ejus  Christus, 
qui  Tiberio  imperante,  per  Procuratorem  Pentium  Pilatum, 
supplicio  affectus  exat.  Tac.  An.  XV. 


IE 


CHRISTIANITY. . , 

ble,  letter.  There  is  no  summary  process" by 
means  of  which  a  controversy  like  this  may  be 
disposed  of.  The  question,  if  indeed  there  be  a 
question,  is  one  of  historical  criticism  ;  and  is  to  be 
determined  in  no  other  manner  than  by  a  diligent 
application  of  the  rules  of  that  now  well-digested 
science. 

Nor  can  it  be  necessary  to  remind  well-informed 
persons,  that  the  legitimate  deductions  of  one  science 
are  not  to  be  overruled  by  sidelong  inferences,  de- 
rived from  another.  The  question  being — whether 
Csesar's  Commentaries  are  indeed  Caesar's  ;  we  are 
not  to  be  told,  as  a  sufficient  reply,  that  the  newest 
discoveries  in  human  physiology,  or  that  recent  ex- 
periments in  chemistry,  or  that  a  doctrine  derived, 
yesterday,  from  an  excavation,  does  not  favour  the 
affirmative  ?  Nothing  can  be  more  impertinent  or 
unphilosophical  than  intrusions  of  this  sort.* 

*  But  if,  on  grounds  of  philosophical  justice,  we  thus  pro- 
test against  the  interference  of  the  physical  or  physiological 
sciences  with  the  historical  evidences  of  Christianity;  the 
very  same  doctrine,  must  in  all  equity,  be  held  to  condemn 
the  ill-considered  zeal  of  those  who,  from  mistaken  religious 
motives,  would  fain  interdict  the  advances  of  science,  even 
when  confining  itself  to  its  own  ground,  and  when  employing 
methods  altogether  unexceptionable.  Those  who  have  indeed 
made  themselves  familiar  with  the  historic  proof  of  Christi- 
anity, will  be  exempt  from  all  solicitude  as  to  the  ultimate 
conclusions  of  Geology,  or  of  any  other  science. 
3 


26  ON     SPIRITUAL 

But  if  there  be  a  question  concerning  the  antiquity 
or  genuineness  of  any  portion  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  well-informed  Christian  will  be  the  most 
eager  to  provoke,  and  the  most  assiduous  in  prose- 
cuting the  inquiry  ;  and  if  there  are  any  who  wish 
to  evade  it,  it  must  be  either  the  ill-informed  Chris- 
tian, or  the  too  well-informed  infidel. 

But  it  is  said  that  "  this  critical  argument  in  sup- 
port of  the  antiquity  and  genuineness  of  the  several 
portions  of  the  New  Testament,  is  too  recondite  to 
be  appreciable  by  the  majority,  even  of  well-edu- 
cated persons." — Is  it  so  ?— then  it  keeps  company 
with  the  entire  circle  of  the  modern  sciences,  whe- 
ther abstract  or  physical. 

Even  in  an  assembly  of  well-educated  persons, 
there  are  not  many  who  would  profess  themselves 
to  be  competent  to  follow,  intelligently,  the  demon- 
stration which  establishes  the  mechanism  of  the  hea- 
vens, as  now  constituting  the  creed  of  Astronomy. 
Beyond  the  walls  of  colleges,  everything  in  science 
is  taken  on  trust ;  and  it  is  very  safely  so  taken  ; 
for  all  well  know,  that  the  professors  of  science,  in 
these  times,  mystify  nothing  ;  and  offer  satisfactory 
proof  in  support  of  whatever  they  affirm.  Although 
there  be  few,  in  fact,  who  tread  the  paths  of  philo- 
sophy, there  is  neither  bar  at  the  entrance,  nor 
labyrinth  midway  in  the  course.  It  should  be  re- 
membered that,  just  in  proportion  as  the  results  of 


CHRISTIANITY.  27 

modern  science  have  become  unquestionably  cer- 
tain, the  proof  of  that  certainty  has  become  the 
more  recondite,  and  so  as  to  be  fully  intelligible 
only  to  those  who  devote  their  lives  to  the  pursuit. 

So  it  is  likewise  on  the  field  of  historical  criti- 
cism ;  and  precisely  because  the  methods  of  proof 
now  resorted  to,  are  wide  in  their  range,  various  in 
their  elements,  and  rigidly  exact  in  their  inductions  ; 
— it  is  because  they  are  certain,  that  they  are  also 
difficult ;  it  is  because  they  are  circumstantially 
strong,  nay,  irrefragable,  that  they  demand  powers 
of  attention  severely  disciplined,  and  many  accom- 
plishments, in  those  who  would  follow  them  through 
their  ample  circuits. 

We  affirm  then,  that  which  will  not  be  disputed 
by  any  who  are  competent  to  call  it  in  ques- 
tion, that,  in  the  authentic  methods  of  historical 
criticism,  rigorously  and  laboriously  applied  to 
the  Christian  documents,  and  to  every  separate 
portion  of  them  (a  very  few  passages  or  phrases 
being  excepted)  the  genuineness  of  the  books  of 
the  New  Testament  has,  in  our  own  times,  been 
placed  far  beyond  the  reach  of  all  reasonable  doubt. 
How  difficult  soever,  or  even  impracticable  it  may 
be  to  render  this  sort  of  evidence  fully  intelligible 
to  the  imperfectly  informed,  no  well-educated  per- 
son can  feel  a  serious  difficulty  in  yielding  his  ab- 
solute assent  to  it. 


28  ON      SPIRITUAL 

Here  then  we  set  our  foot  upon  a  rock.  But  let 
it  be  well  observed  that,  while  the  proof,  could  it 
be  produced,  of  the  spuriousness  of  one  or  more 
passages,  or  even  of  ample  portions  of  the  received 
canon,  would  leave  the  Christian  argument  un- 
touched, in  the  main  ;  on  the  contrary,  unquestion- 
able proof  of  the  genuineness  of  any  one  consider- 
able portion  of  that  canon,  would  carry  the  whole 
weight  of  Christianity  ;  for  such  an  attested  por- 
tion could  not  be  made  to  consist  with  the  hypo- 
thesis of  infidelity. 

To  rid  the  world  therefore,  as  the  infidel  might 
wish  to  do,  of  the  Evangelic  history,  each  of  the 
Gospels,  separately,  and  each  of  the  Epistles,  se- 
parately, must  be  proved  to  be  spurious.  One  of 
the  Gospels  would  save  our  religion  ;  or  a  single 
apostolic  Epistle,  like  a  morning  star  alone  in  the 
skies,  when  all  other  stars  are  obscured,  would  re- 
deem the  world  from  the  darkness  of  Atheism. 

But  if  the  books  be  genuine  ;  what  is  it  further 
which  may  reasonably  be  doubted  ?  Instead  of 
opening  an  extensive  argument  which  has  so  often 
and  so  conclusively  been  handled,  we  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  considerations  proper  to  our  peculiar 
subject.  We  are  then  to  speak  of  Spiritual  Chris- 
tianity, and  to  insist  upon  modes  of  feeling  of  a 
kind  to  raise  us  above  the  low  levels  of  frivolous 
pleasure,  or  of  sordid  secular  avocations.  By  the 


CHRISTIANITY.  29 

very  necessity  of  our  subject  therefore,  we  must 
make  a  frequent  appeal  to  the  MORAL  SENSE,  and 
must  suppose,  in  the  hearer,  not  merely  conscience 
and  candour ;  but  the  sensibilities  and  instincts  of 
a  well-ordered  mind,  alive  in  some  degree,  to  the 
sympathies  of  virtue.  We  are  not  professing  to 
address  those  who  have  lived  in  too  constant  fami- 
liarity with  what  is  gross  or  selfish,  to  allow  the 
moral  faculties  to  have  retained  their  genuine  force. 

Yet  let  it  not  hence  be  inferred  that  our  argument 
is  itself  a  refinement,  not  intelligible  except  to  those 
whose  mental  qualifications  are  peculiar.  A  vivid 
moral  sense,  and  a  just  taste,  even  if  they  be  rare 
in  fact,  are  so,  not  because  factitious  ;  but  because 
in  too  many  they  have  become  blunted  by  a  course 
of  life,  unfavourable  to  their  exercise.  Nor  do  we 
address  ourselves  to  a  fine  discriminating  moral 
faculty,  as  contradistinguished  from  the  rude,  yet 
native  impressions  of  uncultivated  minds,  and 
which  would  at  once  admit  all  that  we  are  now 
to  ask  ;  but  rather  as  opposed  to  that  which  itself 
is  opposed  to  nature,  and  to  truth  of  feeling. 

A  correct  moral  feeling,  under  the  guidance  of 
which  he  who  possesses  it  makes  his  way  with  cer- 
tainty through  the  labyrinths  of  a  crowded,  sophis- 
ticated world,  choosing  by  its  aid,  his  friend — his 
colleague,  his  agent,  with  a  seldom-baffled  tact, 
and  holding  himself  at  the  distance  of  civility  from 


30  ON     SPIRITUAL 

many  against  whom  he  could  bring  no  accusation — 
this  feeling,  and  this  taste,  the  antenna  of  the  mind, 
are  as  applicable  to  the  persons  of  history,  as  to 
the  persons  of  the  present  moment ;  or  to  such  of 
them,  at  least,  as  have  become  known  to  us,  not 
through  the  artificial  medium  of  rhetorical  eulogies, 
but  by  the  reports  of  unconnected  contemporaries, 
who  have  related,  as  by  accident,  the  less  as  well 
as  the  more  important  incidents  of  their  private  life, 
and  have  repeated,  perhaps  with  little  skill  as  to 
the  selection,  their  conversations  and  discourses. 
Brought  to  bear  on  such  instances,  the  moral 
sense  and  taste, — or  the  instinctive  feeling  of  what 
is  true  in  human  nature,  and  of  what  is  harmonious 
and  consistent  with  itself — are  less  fallible,  we  may 
boldly  say,  than  direct  reasoning,  even  of  the 
severest  sort ;  for  in  our  reasonings,  a  false  step, 
at  the  commencement,  sends  us  far  astray ;  but 
as  to  the  inductions  of  the  moral  sense,  in  gather 
ing  them  up,  we  are  feeling  our  path  as  we  pro- 
ceed, and  at  every  step  we  get  so  much  the  nearer 
to  truth  and  certainty.  Logic  takes  us  on  a  circuit, 
which  if  the  course  be  but  correctly  calculated, 
brings  us  round  to  a  legitimate  conclusion.  But 
the  method  of  induction  by  the  tact  of  the  moral 
sense,  is  a  walking  with  nature,  on  a  day's  jour- 
ney ;  and  a  making  ourselves  familiar  with  the 


CHRISTIANITY.  31 

sweet  tones  of  her  voice  in  a  lengthened    com- 
munion. 

We  should  however  well  observe  the  separate 
offices  of  the  logic  of  critical  evidence,  and  of  the 
logic  of  the  moral  sense,  as  applied  to  the  discrimi- 
nation of  the  genuine  and  the  spurious  in  history. 
Thus,  in  the  instance  before  us,  it  belongs  to  the 
former,  embracing  the  science  of  criticism  as  a  sub- 
sidiary means,  to  trace,  in  the  original  records  of 
Christianity — in  their  varied  style,  in  their  phrases, 
proper  to  the  time,  country,  and  writers — in  their 
incidental  allusions  to  persons,  events  and  usages 
— in  their  internal  agreements,  and  not  less,  in 
their  disagreements,  the  infallible  marks  of  au- 
thenticity. Nor  does  any  thing  remain  to  be 
desired  in  the  way  of  proof,  in  this  line,  which 
may  not  be  found  in  many  conclusive  modern 
works. 

It  is  the  office,  moreover,  of  the  historical  logic, 
as  applied  to  the  Christian  evidences,  to  show  (and 
which  may  most  certainly  be  done)  that  the 
memoirs  of  Christ  have  been  derived  from,  at  the 
least,  three  independent  sources  ;  and  therefore, 
that  the  supposition,  could  it  otherwise  for  a  mo- 
ment be  entertained,  of  an  imaginative  creation 
of  this  altogether  singular  narrative,  is  totally 
excluded. 

The  same  species  of  argument,  moreover,  will 


32  ON     SPIRITUAL 

exhibit  the  manifest  incompetency  of  the  writers  of 
the  Gospels —one  and  all,  for  the  task  of  a  literary 
creation ;  and  their  competency  for  that  only  of 
furnishing  an  inartificial  report  of  incidents  and 
discourses. 

So  far,  a  strict  analysis  of  the  entire  mass  of  the 
evidence,  and  of  the  minute  circumstances  which 
attach  to  it,  excludes  every  doubt  that  the  evangelic 
history  is — HISTORY. 

But  now,  after  these  rigorous  methods  of  analysis 
have  done  their  part,  something  remains  which, 
in  fact,  if  it  can  be  satisfactorily  achieved,  carries 
conviction  home  to  the  mind  in  a  manner  not  often 
if  ever  effected  by  a  merely  critical  argument. 

We  summon  then  to  our  aid,  those  powers  of 
perception  which,  even  if  they  cannot  clothe  them- 
selves in  words,  and  therefore  cannot  be  conveyed 
distinctly  from  mind  to  mind,  are  not  therefore  the 
less  to  be  relied  upon.  Yet  let  us  not  be  misunder- 
stood ;  nor  let  it  for  a  moment  be  supposed  that  we 
are  so  forgetful  of  the  principles  of  Spiritual  Chris- 
tianity, hereafter  to  be  affirmed,  as  to  attempt  to 
hale  things  divine  to  the  tribunal  of  the  perverted 
moral  perceptions  of  the  human  mind.  This  we 
are  not  doing  ;  but  are  only  endeavouring  to  bring 
the  moral  sense  to  bear  upon  objects  which  lie 
altogether  within  its  proper  range  ; — that  is  to  say, 
upon  human  character,  human  conduct,  and  upon 


CHRISTIANITY.  33 

the"  well-known  harmonies  of  the  world  of  mind,  as 
exposed  to  our  view  in  others,  or  as  presented  by 
our  personal  consciousness. 

Moreover  we  do  not  hesitate  to  ask,  that  such 
faint  conceptions  as  the  human  mind  may  of  itself 
entertain,  of  the  bright  excellence  of  a  better  world, 
should  be  at  hand,  and  give  their  testimony,  so  far 
as  they  may,  in  support  of  ^our  conclusions  ;  for  it 
has  ever  been  held  that,  if  the  spotless  virtue  of 
heaven  were  to  appear  upon  earth,  she  would  be 
recognized  and  reverenced,  even  by  the  most  abject, 
or  the  most  perverted  of  mankind. 

Read  then  the  Gospels,  simply  as  historical  me- 
moirs :  and  by  such  aids  as  they  alone  supply,  make 
yourself  acquainted  with  Him  who  is  the  subject  of 
these  narrations.  Bring  the  individual  conception, 
as  distinctly  as  possible  before  the  mind  : — allow  the 
moral  sense  to  confer,  in  its  own  manner,  and  at 
leisure,  with  this  unusual  form  of  humanity. — "  Be- 
hold the  man  " — even  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and 
say  whether  it  be  not  historic  truth  that  is  before  the 
eye.  The  more  peculiar  is  this  form,  yet  withal 
symmetrical,  the  more  infallible  is  the  impression  of 
reality  we  thence  receive.  What  we  have  to  do 
with  in  this  instance,  is  not  an  undefined  ideal  of 
wisdom  and  goodness,  conveyed  in  round  affirma- 
tions, or  in  eulogies  ;  but  with  a  self-developed 
individuality,  in  conveying  which  the  writers  of  the 


34 


ON     SP  T  R ITUAL 


narrative  do  not  appear.  In  this  instance,  if  in  any, 
the  medium  is  transparent :  nothing  intervenes 
between  the  reader  and  the  personage  of  the  his- 
tory, in  whose  presence  we  stand,  as  if  not  separated 
by  time  and  space. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  the  entire  range 
of  ancient  history  presents  any  one  character  in 
colours  of  reality  so  fresh  as  those  which  distinguish 
the  personage  of  the  evangelic  memoirs.  The 
sages  and  heroes  of  antiquity — less  and  less  nearly 
related,  as  they  must  be,  to  any  living  interests, 
are  fading  amid  the  mists  of  an  obsolete  world  :  but 
He  who  "  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for 
ever,"  is  offered  to  the  view  of  mankind,  in  the 
dyes  of  immortality,  fitting  a  history,  which,  instead 
of  losing  the  intensity  of  its  import,  is  gathering 
weight  by  the  lapse  of  time. 

The  Evangelists,  by  the  translucency  of  their 
style,  have  given  a  lesson  in  biographical  compo- 
sition, showing  how  perfectly  individual  character 
may  be  expressed  in  a  method  which  disdains  every 
rule  but  that  of  fidelity.  It  is  personal  humanity, 
in  the  presence  of  which  we  stand,  while  perusing 
the  Gospels,  and  to  each  reader,  apart,  if  serious 
and  ingenuous,  and  yet  incredulous,  the  Saviour  of 
the  world  addresses  a  mild  reproof — "  It  is  I. — 
Behold  my  hands  and  my  feet : — Reach  hither  thy 
hand,  and  thrust  it  into  rny  side,  and  be  not  faith- 


CHRISTIANITY.  35 

less,  but  believing."  And  can  we  do  otherwise  than 
grant,  all  that  is  now  demanded — namely,  That  the 
Evangelists  record  the  actions  and  discourses  of  a 
real  person  ? 

It  is  well  to  consider  the  extraordinary  contrasts 
that  are  yet  perfectly  harmonized  in  the  personal 
character  of  Christ. 

At  a  first  glance  he  appears  always  in  his  own 
garb  of  humility ;  lowliness  of  demeanour  is  his 
very  characteristic.  But  we  must  not  forget  that 
this  lowliness  was  combined  with  nothing  less  than 
a  solemnly  proclaimed,  and  peremptory  challenge 
of  rightful  headship  over  the  human  race  !  Never- 
theless the  oneness  of  the  character — the  fair  per- 
fection of  the  surface,  suffers  no  rent  by  this 
blending  of  elements  so  strangely  diverse.  Let 
us  then  bring  before  the  mind,  with  all  the  distinct- 
ness we  can,  the  conception  of  the  Teacher,  more 
meek  than  any  who  has  ever  assumed  to  rule  the 
opinions  of  mankind,  and  who  yet,  in  the  tones 
proper  to  tranquil  modesty,  and  as  conscious  at 
once  of  power  and  right,  anticipates  that  day  of 
wonder,  when,  "  the  KING  shall  sit  on  the  throne 
of  his  glory,"  with  his  angels  attendant ;  and  when 
"  all  nations  shall  be  gathered  before  him,"  from 
his  lips  to  receive  their  doom  !  The  more  these 
elements  of  personal  character  are  disproportionate, 


36  ON     SPIRITUAL 

the  more  convincing  is  the  proof  of  reality,  which 
arises  from  their  harmony. 

We  may  read  the  Evangelists  listlessly,  and  not 
perceive  this  evidence  ;  but  we  can  never  read 
them  intelligently  without  yielding  to  it  our  con- 
victions. 

If  the  character  of  Christ  be,  as  indeed  it  is, 
altogether  unmatched,  in  the  circle  of  history,  it  is 
even  less  so  by  the  singularity  of  the  intellectual 
and  moral  elements  which  it  combines,  than  by  the 
sweetness  and  perfection  which  result  from  their 
union.  This  will  appear  the  more,  if  we  consider 
those  instances  in  which  the  combination  was  alto- 
gether of  an  unprecedented  kind. 

Nothing  has  been  more  constant  in  the  history 
of  the  human  mind,  whenever  the  religious  emo- 
tions have  gained  a  supremacy  over  the  sensual 
and  sordid  passions,  than  the  breaking  out  of  the 
ascetic  temper  in  some  of  its  forms  ;  and  most  often 
in  that  which  disguises  virtue,  now  as  a  spectre, 
now  as  a  maniac,  now  as  a  mendicant,  now  as  a 
slave,  but  never  as  the  bright  daughter  of  heaven. 
Of  the  three  Jewish  sects,  extant  in  our  Lord's 
time,  two  of  them — that  is  to  say,  the  two  that 
made  pretensions  to  any  sort  of  piety,  had  assumed 
the  ascetic  garb,  in  its  two  customary  species — the 
philosophic  (the  Essenes)  and  the  fanatical  (the 
Pharisees) ;  and  so  strong  and  uniform  is  this 


CHRISTIANITY.  37 

crabbed  inclination,  that  Christianity  itself,  in  violent 
contrariety  to  its  spirit  and  its  precepts,  went  off 
into  the  ascetic  temper,  within  a  century  after  the 
close  of  the  apostolic  age,  or  even  earlier. 

Under  this  aspect  then,  let  us  for  a  moment 
consider  the  absolutely  novel  phenomenon  of  the 
Teacher  of  a  far  purer  morality  than  the  world  had 
heretofore  ever  listened  to  ;  yet  himself  affecting 
no  singularities  in  his  modes  of  living.  The  supe- 
riority of  the  soul  to  the  body,  was  the  very  purport 
of  his  doctrine  ;  and  yet  he  did  not  waste  the  body 
by  any  austerities  !  The  duty  of  self-denial  he 
perpetually  enforced ;  and  yet  he  practised  no 
factitious  mortifications!  This  Teacher,  not  of 
abstinence,  but  of  virtue  ;  this  Reprover,  not  of 
enjoyment,  but  of  vice,  himself  went  in  and  out 
among  the  social  amenities  of  ordinary  life  with  so 
unsolicitous  a  freedom,  as  to  give  colour  to  the 
malice  of  hypocrisy,  in  pointing  the  finger  at  him, 
saying — "  Behold  a  gluttonous  man,  and  a  wine- 
bibber  ;  a  friend  (companion)  of  publicans  and 
sinners  !"  Should  we  not  then  note  this  singular 
apposition  and  harmony  of  qualities — that  he  who 
was  familiar  with  the  festivities  of  heaven,  did  not 
any  more  disdain  the  poor  solaces  of  mortality,  than 
disregard  its  transient  pains  and  woes  ?  Follow 
this  same  Jesus  from  the  banquets  of  the  opulent, 
where  he  showed  no  scruples  in  diet,  to  the  high- 
4 


38  ON     SPIRITUAL 

ways  and  wildernesses  of  Judea,  where,  never 
indifferent  to  human  sufferings,  he  healed  "  as  many 
as  came  unto  him." 

These  remarkable  features  in  the  personal  char- 
acter of  Christ  have  often,  and  very  properly  been 
adduced,  as  instances  of  the  unrivalled  wisdom  and 
elevation,  which  marked  him  as  pre-eminent  among 
the  wise  and  good. 

It  is  not  however  for  this  purpose  that  we  now 
refer  to  them  ;  but  rather  as  harmonies,  altogether 
inimitable,  and  which  put  beyond  doubt  the  historic 
reality  of  the  Person.  Thus  considered,  they  must 
be  admitted  by  calm  minds  as  carrying  the  truth  of 
Christianity  itself. 

There  are  however  those  who  will  readily  grant 
us,  what  indeed  they  cannot,  with  any  appearance 
of  candour  deny — the  historic  reality  of  the  person 
of  Christ,  and  the  more-than-human  excellence 
which  his  behaviour  and  discourses  embody  ;  but 
at  this  point  they  declare  that  they  must  stop.  Let 
such  persons  see  to  it : — they  cannot  stop  at  this 
point ;  for  just  at  this  point  there  is  no  ground  on 
which  foot  may  stand. 

— What  are  the  facts  ? 

— The  inimitable  characteristics  of  nature  attach 
to  what  we  may  call  the  common  incidents  of  the 
evangelical  history,  and  in  which  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
is  seen  mingling  himself  with  the  ordinary  course 


CHRISTIANITY.  39 

of  social  life.  But  is  it  true  that  these  characteris- 
tics suddenly,  and  in  each  instance,  disappear  when 
the  same  person  is  presented  to  us  walking  on 
another,  and  a  high  path — namely,  that  of  super- 
natural power  ?  IT  is  NOT  so,  and  on  the  contrary, 
very  many  of  the  most  peculiar  and  infallible  of 
those  touches  of  tenderness  and  pathos  which  so 
generally  mark  the  evangelic  narrative,  belong 
precisely  to  the  supernatural  portions  of  it,  and  are 
inseparably  connected  with  acts  of  miraculous 
beneficence.  We  ask  that  the  Gospels  be  read  with 
the  utmost  severity  of  criticism,  and  with  this 
especial  object  in  view,  namely — to  inquire — 
Whether  those  indications  of  reality  which  have 
already  been  yielded  to  as  irresistible  evidences  of 
truth,  do  not  belong  as  fully  to  the  supernatural,  as 
they  do  to  the  ordinary  incidents  of  the  Gospels  ? 
or  in  other  words,  whether,  unless  we  resolve  to 
overrule  the  question  by  a  previous  determination, 
any  ground  of  simply  historic  distinction  presents 
itself,  marking  off  the  supernatural  from  the  ordi- 
nary events  of  the  evangelic  narratives  ? 

If  we  feel  ourselves  to  be  conversing  with  historic 
truth,  as  well  as  with  heavenly  wisdom,  when  Jesus 
is  before  us,  seated  on  the  mountain  brow,  and 
delivering  the  Beatitudes  to  his  disciples  ;  is  it  so 
that  the  colours  become  confused,  and  the  contour 
of  the  figures  unreal,  when  the  same  personage,  in 


40  ONSTIRITUAL 

the  midst  of  thousands,  seated  by  fifties  on  the 
grassy  slope,  supplies  the  hunger  of  the  multitude 
by  the  word  of  his  power  ?  Is  it  historic  truth  that 
is  presented  when  the  fearless  Teacher  of  a  just 
morality  convicts  the  Rabbis  of  folly  and  perversity ; 
and  less  so  when,  turning  from  his  envious  oppo- 
nents, he  says  to  the  paralytic — "  Take  up  thy  bed 
and  walk  ? "  Nature  herself  is  before  us  when  the 
repentant  woman,  after  washing  the  Lord's  feet 
with  her  tears,  and  wiping  them  with  her  hair,  sits 
contrasted  with  the  obdurate  and  uncourteous 
Pharisee  : — But  the  very  same  bright  forms  of 
reality  mark  the  scene  when  Jesus,  filled  with  com- 
passion at  the  sight  of  a  mother's  woe,  stays  the 
bier,  and  renders  her  son  alive  to  her  bosom. 

Or,  if  we  turn  to  those  portions  of  the  Gospels  in 
which  the  incidents  are  narrated  more  in  detail,  and 
where  a  greater  variety  of  persons  is  introduced,  and 
where  therefore  the  supposition  of  fabrication  is  the 
more  peremptorily  excluded,  it  is  found  that  the  su- 
pernatural and  the  ordinary  elements  are  in  no  way 
to  be  distinguished  in  respect  of  the  simple  vivacity 
with  which  both  present  themselves  to  the  eye.  The 
evangelic  narrative  offers  the  same  bright  translu- 
cency — the  same  serenity,  and  the  same  precision, 
in  reporting  the  most  astounding,  as  the  most  fa- 
miliar occurrences.  It  is  like  a  smooth-surfaced 
river  which,  in  holding  its  course  through  a  varied 


CHRISTIANITY.  41 

country,  reflects  from  its  bosom,  at  one  moment  the 
amenities  of  a  homely  border,  and  at  the  next  the 
summits  of  the  Alps,  and  both  with  the  same  un- 
ruffled fidelity. 

As  the  subject  of  a  rigorous  historic  criticism,  and 
all  hypothetical  opinions  being  excluded,  no  pretext 
whatever  presents  itself  for  drawing  a  line  around 
the  supernatural  portions  of  the  Gospels,  as  if  they 
were  of  suspicious  aspect,  and  differed  from  the  con- 
text in  historic  verisimilitude.  Without  violence 
done  to  the  rules  of  criticism,  we  cannot  detach  the 
miraculous  portions  of  the  history,  and  then  put  to- 
gether the  mutilated  portions,  so  as  to  consist  with 
the  undoubted  reality  of  the  part  which  is  retained. 

Or  take  the  narrative  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus  of 
Bethany.  A  brilliant  vividness,  as  when  a  sunbeam 
breaks  from  between  clouds,  illumines  this  unmatch- 
ed history  ; — and  it  rests  with  equal  intensity  upon 
the  stupendous  miracle,  and  upon  the  beauty  and 
grace  of  the  scene  of  domestic  sorrow.  If  we  follow 
Martha  arid  Mary  from  the  house  to  the  spot  where 
they  meet  their  friend,  and  give  a  half-utterance  to 
their  confidence  in  his  power ;  at  what  step — let  us 
distinctly  determine — at  what  step,  as  the  group  pro- 
ceeds towards  the  sepulchre,  shall  we  halt  and  refuse 
to  accompany  it  ?  Where  is  the  break  in  the  story, 
or  the  point  of  transition  ;  and  where  does  history 
finish,  and  the  spurious  portion  commence  ?  Is  it 
4* 


42  ON    SPIRIT  UAL 

when  we  approach  the  cave's  mouth  that  the  ges- 
tures of  the  persons  become  unreal,  and  the  lan- 
guage untrue  to  nature  ?  Where  is  it  that  the  indi- 
cations of  tenderness  and  majesty  disappear  ?  — at 
the  moment  when  Jesus  weeps ;  or  when  he  in- 
vokes his  Father  ;  or  when,  with  a  voice  which 
echoes  in  Hades,  he  challenges  the  dead  to  come 
forth  ;  or  is  it  when  "  he  who  was  dead,"  obeys  this 
bidding  ? 

We  affirm  that,  on  no  principles  which  a  sound 
mind  can  approve,  is  it  possible,  either  to  deny  the 
reality  of  the  natural  portions  of  this  narrative,  or  to 
sever  these  from  the  supernatural.  But  this  is  not 
enough  ;  for  it  might  be  in  fact  more  easy  to  offer 
some  intelligible  solution  of  the  difficulty  attaching 
to  the  supposition  that  the  Gospels  are  not  true,  in 
respect  of  the  ordinary,  than  of  the  extraordinary 
portion  of  their  materials.  If  we  were  to  allow  it 
to  be  possible  (which  it  is  not)  that  writers  showing 
so  little  inventive  or  plastic  power,  as  do  Matthew 
the  Publican,  and  John  of  Galilee,  should,  with  the 
harmony  of  truth,  have  carried  their  imaginary  Mas- 
ter through  the  common  acts  and  incidents  of  his 
course  ;  never  could  they,  no,  nor  writers  the  most 
accomplished,  have  brought  him,  in  modest  simpli- 
city, through  the  miraculous  acts  of  that  course. 
Desperate  must  be  the  endeavour  to  show  that, 
while  the  ordinary  events  of  the  Gospel  must  be  ad- 


CHRISTIANITY/  43 

milted  as  true,  the  extraordinary  are  incredible.  On 
the  contrary,  it  would  be  to  the  former,  if  to  any, 
that  a  suspicion  might  attach  ; — for  as  to  the  latter, 
they  cannot  but  be  true  :  if  not  true,  whence  are 
they  ? 

The  scepticism,  equally  condemned  as  it  is  by 
historical  logic  and  the  moral  sense,  which  allows 
the  natural,  and  disallows  the  supernatural  portion 
of  the  history  of  Christ,  is  absolutely  excluded  when 
we  compare,  in  the  four  Gospels,  separately,  the 
narrative  of  what  precedes  the  resurrection,  with 
the  closing  portions,  which  bring  the  crucified  Jesus 
again  among  his  disciples. 

If  those  portions  of  the  evangelic  history  which 
reach  to  the  moment  of  the  death  of  Christ,  are,  in 
a  critical  sense,  of  the  same  historic  quality  as  those 
which  run  on  to  the  moment  of  his  ascension,  and  if 
the  former  absolutely  command  our  assent — if  they 
carry  it  as  by  force,  then,  by  a  most  direct  inference, 
"  is  Christ  risen  indeed,"  and  become  the  first  fruits 
of  immortality  to  the  human  race.  Then  is  it  true 
that,  "  as  in  Adam  all  die,  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be 
made  alive."  No  narrative  is  any  where  extant 
comparable  to  that  of  the  days  and  hours  imme- 
diately preceding  the  crucifixion ;  and  the  several 
accounts  of  the  hurried  events  of  those  days  present 
the  minute  discordancies  which  are  always  found 


44  ONSPIRITUAL 

to  belong  to  genuine  memoirs,  compiled  by  eye- 
witnesses. 

The  last  supper  and  its  sublime  discourses  ;  the 
agony  in  the  garden,  the  behaviour  of  the  traitor, 
the  scenes  in  the  hall  of  the  chief  priest,  and  before 
the  judgment  seat  of  the  Roman  procurator — and  in 
the  Palace  of  Herod,  and  in  the  place  called  the 
Pavement,  and  on  the  way  from  the  city  ; — and  the 
scene  on  Calvary,  are  true — if  anything  in  the  com- 
pass of  history  be  true. 

But  now — if  our  moral  perceptions  are,  in  this 
way,  to  be  listened  to,  not  less  incontestably  real 
are  the  closing  chapters  of  the  four  Gospels,  in 
which  we  find  the  same  sobriety  and  the  same  vi- 
vacity ;  the  same  distinctness,  and  the  same  fresh- 
ness ;  the  same  pathos,  and  the  same  wisdom,  and 
the  same  majesty  ;  and  yet  all  chastened  by  the  re- 
collected sorrows  of  a  terrible  conflict  just  passed, 
and  mellowed  with  the  glow  of  a  triumph  at  hand. 

Let  it  be  imagined  that  writers  such  as  the  evan- 
gelists, might  have  led  their  master  as  far  as  to 
Calvary  ;  but  could  they,  unless  truth  had  been  be- 
fore them,  have  reproduced  him  from  the  sepul- 
chre ?  What  abruptness,  harshness,  extravagance, 
what  want  of  harmony,  would  have  been  presented 
in  the  closing  chapters  of  the  Gospels,  if  the  same 
Jesus  had  not  supplied  the  writers  with  their  mate- 


CHRISTIANITY.  45 

rials,  by  going  in  and  out  among  them  after  his 
resurrection  ! 

On  the  supposition  that  Christ  did  not  rise  from 
the  dead,  let  any  one  whose  moral  tastes  are  not 
entirely  blunted,  read  the  narrative  of  his  encounter 
with  Mary  in  the  garden,  and  with  his  disciples  in 
the  inner  chamber,  and  again  on  the  shore  of  the 
Lake  ;  let  him  study  the  perfect  simplicity  and  yet 
the  warmth  of  the  interview  with  the  two  disciples 
on  their  way  to  Emmaus.  The  better  taste  of 
modern  times,  and  the  just  sense  of  what  is  true 
in  sentiment,  and  pure  in  composition,  give  us  an 
advantage  in  an  analysis  of  this  sort.  Guided,  then, 
by  the  instincts  of  the  most  severe  taste,  let  us 
spread  before  us  the  final  portion  of  the  Gospel  of 
Luke  ; — namely,  the  twenty-fourth  chapter,  which 
reports  a  selection  of  the  events  occurring  between 
the  early  morning  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and 
that  moment  of  wonder  when,  starting  from  the 
world  he  had  ransomed,  the  Saviour  returned 
whence  he  had  come.  Will  any  one  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  antiquity  affirm  that  any  writer, 
Greek,  Roman,  or  Barbarian,  has  come  down  to 
us,  whom  we  can  believe  capable  of  conceiving  at 
all  of  such  a  style  of  incident  or  discourse  ;  or  who, 
had  he  conceived  it,  could  have  conveyed  his  con- 
ception in  a  style  so  chaste,  natural,  calm,  lucid, 
pure  ?  Nothing  like  this  narrative  is  contained  in 


46  ON      SPIRITUAL 

all  the  circle  of  fiction,  and  nothing  equal  to  it  in  all 
the  circle  of  history  ;  and  yet  nothing  is  more  per- 
fectly consonant  with  the  harmonies  of  nature.  We 
may  listlessly  peruse  this  page,  each  line  of  which 
wakens  a  sympathy  in  every  bosom  which  itself 
responds  to  truth.  But  if  we  ponder  it — if  we  al- 
low the  mind  to  grasp  the  several  objects,  we  are 
vanquished  by  the  conviction  that  all  is  real. — But 
if  real,  and  if  Christ  be  risen  indeed,  then  is  Chris- 
tianity indeed  A  RELIGION  OF  FACTS  ;  and  then  are 
we  fully  entitled  to  a  bold  affirmation,  and  urgent 
use  of  whatever  inferences  may  thence  be  fairly 
deduced. 

Acute  minds  will  not  be  slow  to  discern,  as  in 
perspective  before  them,  the  train  of  those  infer- 
ences which  we  shall  feel  ourselves  at  liberty  to 
deduce  from  the  admission  that  Christianity  is  his- 
torically true.  This  admission  cannot,  we  are 
sure,  be  withheld  ;  and  yet  let  it  not  be  made  with 
a  reserved  intention  to  evade  the  consequences. 
What  are  they  ? — They  are  such  as  embrace  the 
personal  well-being  of  every  one  ;  for,  if  Christi- 
anity be  a  history,  it  is  a  history  still  in  full  pro- 
gress ;  it  is  a  history  running  on,  far  beyond  the 
dim  horizon  of  human  hopes  and  fears. 

But  it  is  said,  all  this,  at  the  best,  is  moral  evi- 
dence only ;  and  those  who  are  conversant  with 


CHRISTIANITY.  47 

mathematical  demonstrations,  and  with  the  rigorous 
methods  of  physical  science,  must  not  be  required 
to  yield  their  convictions  easily  to  mere  moral  evi- 
dence. 

We  ask,  have  those  who  are  accustomed  thus  to 
speak,  actually  considered  the  import  of  their  objec- 
tion ;  or  inquired  what  are  the  consequences  it  in- 
volves, if  valid  ?  We  believe  not ;  and  we  think  so, 
because  the  very  terms  are  destitute  of  logical  mean- 
ing ;  or  imply,  if  a  meaning  be  assigned  to  them,  a 
palpable  absurdity. 

If,  for  a  moment,  we  grant  an  intelligible  mean- 
ing to  the  objection  as  stated,  and  consent  to  under- 
stand the  terms  in  which  it  is  conveyed,  as  they  are 
often  used,  then  we  affirm — That  some  portion  of 
even  the  abstract  sciences  is  less  certain  than  are 
very  many  things  established  by  what  is  called 
moral  evidence — That  a  large  amount  of  what  is 
accredited  as  probably  true  within  the  circle  of  the 
physical  and  mixed  sciences  is  immeasurably  in- 
ferior in  certainty  to  much  which  rests  upon  moral 
evidence  : — and  further — That  so  far  from  its  being 
reasonable  to  reject  this  species  of  evidence,  the 
mere  circumstance  of  a  man's  being  known  to  dis- 
trust it  in  the  conduct  of  his  daily  affairs,  would  be 
held  to  justify,  in  his  case,  a  commission  of  lunacy. 

No  supposition  can  be  more  inaccurate  than  that 
which  assumes  the  three  kinds  of  proof,  mathema- 


48  ONSPIRITUAL 

tical,  physical,  and  moral,  to  range,  one  beneath 
the  other,  in  a  regular  gradation  of  certainty  ; — as 
if  the  mathematical  were  in  all  cases  absolute  ;  the 
physical  a  degree  lower,  or,  as  to  its  results,  in 
some  degree,  and  always,  less  certain  than  those  of 
the  first ;  and  by  consequence  the  third,  being  in- 
ferior to  the  second,  necessarily  far  inferior  to  the 
first ;  and  therefore,  always  much  less  certain  than 
that  which  alone  deserves  to  be  spoken  of  as  cer- 
tain ;  and  in  fact  barely  trustworthy  in  any  case. 

Any  such  distribution  of  the  kinds  of  proof  is 
mere  confusion ;  illogical  abstractedly,  and  involving 
consequences,  which,  if  acted  upon,  would  appear 
ridiculously  absurd. 

It  is  indeed  true,  that  the  three  great  classes  of 
facts — the  universal,  or  absolute — (mathematical 
and  metaphysical)  the  general,  or  physical — and  the 
individual  (forensic  and  historical)  are  pursued  and 
ascertained  by  three  corresponding  methods — or, 
as  they  might  be  called — three  logics.  But  it  is  far 
from  being  true  that  the  three  species  of  reasoning 
hold  an  exclusive  authority,  or  sole  jurisdiction, 
over  the  three  classes  of  facts  above  mentioned. 
Throughout  the  physical  sciences,  the  mathemati- 
cal logic  is  perpetually  resorted  to ;  while,  even 
within  the  range  of  the  mathematical,  the  physical 
is,  once  and  again,  brought  in  as  an  aid.  But  if  we 
turn  to  the  historical  and  forensic  department  of 


CHRISTIANITY. 


49 


facts,  the  three  methods  are  so  blended  in  the  esta- 
blishment of  them,  that,  to  separate  them  altogether 
is  impracticable  ;  and  as  to  moral  evidence,  if  we 
use  the  phrase  in  any  intelligible  sense,  it  does  but 
give  its  aid,  at  times,  on  this  ground  ;  and  even  then 
the  conclusions  to  which  it  leads  rest  upon  induc- 
tions which  are  physical,  rather  than  moral. 

The  conduct  of  a  complicated  historical,  or  fo- 
rensic argument  concerning  individual  facts,  re- 
sembles the  manipulations  of  an  adroit  workman, 
who,  having  some  nice  operation  in  progress,  lays 
down  one  tool,  and  snatches  up  another,  and  then 
another,  according  to  the  momentary  exigencies  of 
his  task. 

That  sort  of  evidence  may  properly  be  called 
moral,  which  appeals  to  the  moral  sense,  and  in 
assenting  to  which,  as  we  often  do  with  an  irresis- 
tible conviction,  we  are  unable,  with  any  precision, 
to  convey  to  another  mind  the  grounds  of  our  firm 
belief.  It  is  thus,  often,  that  we  estimate  the  vera- 
city of  a  witness,  or  judge  of  the  reality  or  spurious- 
ness  of  a  written  narrative.  But  then  even  this 
sort  of  evidence,  when  nicely  analyzed,  resolves  it- 
self into  physical  principles.  What  are  these  con- 
victions, which  we  find  it  impossible  to  clothe  in 
words,  but  the  results,  in  our  minds,  of  slow,  in- 
voluntary inductions  concerning  moral  qualities,  and 
which,  inasmuch  as  they  are  peculiarly  exact,  are 
5 


50  ON     SPIRITUAL 

not  to  be  transfused  into  a  medium  so  vague  and 
faulty  as  is  language,  at  the  best. 

As  to  the  mass  of  history,  by  far  the  larger  por- 
tion of  it  rests,  in  no  proper  sense,  upon  moral 
evidence.  To  a  portion  the  mathematical  doctrine 
of  probabilities  applies  ; — for  it  may  be  as  a  million 
to  one,  that  an  alleged  fact,  under  all  the  circum- 
stances, is  true.  But  the  proof  of  the  larger  portion 
resolves  itself  into  our  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the 
material  world,  and  of  those  of  the  world  of  mind . 
A  portion  also  is  conclusively  established  by  a  mi- 
nute scrutiny  of  its  agreement  with  that  intricate 
combination  of  small  events  which  makes  up  the 
course  of  human  affairs. 

Every  real  transaction,  especially  those  which 
flow  on  through  a  course  of  time,  touches  this  web- 
work  of  small  events  at  many  points,  and  is  woven 
into  its  very  substance.  Fiction  may  indeed  paint 
its  personages  so  as  for  a  moment  to  deceive  the 
eye  ; — but  it  has  never  succeeded  in  the  attempt  to 
foist  its  factitious  embroideries  upon  the  tapestry  of 
truth. 

We  might  take  as  an  instance,  that  irresistible 
book  in  which  Paley  has  established  the  truth  of 
the  personal  history  of  St.  Paul.*  It  is  throughout 
a  tracing  of  the  thousand  fibres  by  which  a  long 

*  The  "  Horee  Paulinae." 


CHRISTIANITY.  51 

series  of  events  connects  itself  with  the  warp  and 
woof  of  human  affairs.  To  apply  to  evidence  of 
this  sort,  the  besom  of  scepticism,  and  sweepingly 
to  remove  it  as  consisting  only  in  moral  evidence, 
is  an  amazing  instance  of  confusion  of  mind. 

It  is  often  loosely  affirmed  that  history  rests 
mainly  upon  moral  evidence.  Is  then  a  Roman 
camp  moral  evidence  ?  Or  is  a  Roman  road  moral 
evidence  ?  Or  are  these  and  many  other  facts,  when 
appealed  to  as  proof  of  the  assertion  that,  in  a  re- 
mote age,  the  Romans  held  military  occupation  of 
Britain,  moral  evidence  ?  If  they  be,  then  we  affirm 
that,  when  complete  in  its  kind,  it  falls  not  a  whit 
behind  mathematical  demonstration,  as  to  its  cer- 
tainty.* 

Although  it  is  not  true  that  Christianity  rests 
mainly  upon  moral  evidence,  yet  it  is  true,  that  it 
might  rest  on  that  ground  with  perfect  security. 

It  is  to  this  species  of  evidence  that  we  have  now 
appealed ;  not  as  establishing  the  heavenly  origin 
of  Christianity — which  it  does  establish";  but  simply 
as  it  attests  the  historic  reality  of  the  person  of 
Christ.  And  here  we  must  ask  an  ingenuous  con- 
fession from  whoever  may  be  bound  in  foro  con- 

*  Some  instances,  intended  to  place  this  important  point 
in  a  clear  light,  will  be  found  in  a  note  appended  to  the  Lec- 
tures. 


52  ON      SPIRITUAL 

scientia  to  give  it,  that  the  notion  of  Christianity, 
and  the  habitual  feelings  toward  it  of  many  in  this 
Christian  country,  are  such  as  if,  brought  to  the 
test  of  severe  reasoning,  could  by  no  ingenuity  be 
made  to  consist,  either  with  the  supposition  that 
Christianity  is  historically  false,  or  that  it  is  his- 
torically true  !  This  ambiguous  faith  of  the  cul- 
tured, less  reasonable  than  the  superstitions  of  the 
vulgar  (for  they  are  consistent,  which  this  is  not) 
could  never  hold  a  place  in  a  disciplined  mind  but 
by  an  act,  repeated  from  day  to  day,  and  similar  to 
that  of  a  man  who  should  refuse  to  have  the  shut- 
ters removed  from  the  windows  on  that  side  of  his 
house  whence  he  might  descry  the  residence  of  his 
enemy. 

If  Christianity  be  historically  true,  it  must  be 
granted  to  demand  more  than  a  respectful  acknow- 
ledgment that  its  system  of  ethics  is  pure  ;  or,  were 
it  historically  false,  we  ought  to  think  ourselves  to 
be  outraging  at  once  virtue  and  reason  in  allowing 
its  name  to  pass  our  lips.  While  bowing  to  Chris- 
tianity as  good,  and  useful ;  and  yet  not  invested 
with  authority  toward  ourselves,  we  are  entangled 
in  a  web  of  inconsistencies,  of  which  we  are  not 
conscious,  only  because  we  choose  to  make  no 
effort  to  break  through  it.  If  Christianity  be  true, 
then  is  it  true  that — "We  must  all  appear  before 
the  judgment-seat  of  Christ ;"  and  must,  "  every  one 


CHRISTIANITY.  53" 

of  us,  give  an  account  of  himself  to  God."  What 
meaning  do  such  words  convey  to  the  minds  of 
those  who,  with  an  equal  alarm,  would  see  Chris- 
tianity overthrown  as  a  controlling  power  in  the 
social  system  ;  or  find  it  brought  home  to  them- 
selves, as  an  authority  they  must  personally  bow 
to  ?  Christians  !  how  many  amongst  us  are  Chris- 
tians, as  men  might  be  called  philosophers,  who, 
while  naming  Newton  always  with  admiration, 
should  yet  reserve  their  interior  assent  for  the  very 
paganism  of  astronomy. 

A  religion  of  facts,  we  need  hardly  observe,  is 
the  only  sort  of  religion  adapted  powerfully  to  affect 
the  hearts  of  the  mass  of  mankind  ;  for  ordinary  or 
uncultured  minds  can  neither  grasp,  nor  will  care 
for,  abstractions  of  any  kind.  But  then  that  which 
makes  Christianity  proper  for  the  many,  and  indeed 
proper  for  all,  if  motives  are  to  be  effectively  sway- 
ed, renders  it  a  rock  of  offence  to  the  few  who  will 
admit  nothing  that  may  not  be  reduced  within  the 
circle  of  their  favoured  generalizations.  Such  minds,, 
therefore,  reject  Christianity,  or  hold  it  in  abeyance, 
not  because  they  can  disprove  it,  but  because  it  will 
not  be  generalized,  because  it  will  not  be  sublima- 
ted, because  it  will  not  be  touched  by  the  tool  of 
reason  :  because  it  must  remain  what  it  is — an  in- 
soluble mass  of  Facts.  In  attempting  to  urge  con- 
sistency upon  such  persons,  the  advocate  of  Chris- 


54  Otf     SPIRIT UAL 

lianity  makes  no  progress,  and  has  to  return,  ever 
and  again,  to  his  document,  and  to  ask — Is  this  true, 
or  false  ?  if  true,  your  metaphysics  may  be  true 
also  ;  but  yet  must  not  give  law  to  your  opinions  ; 
much  less  govern  your  conduct. 

Resolute  as  may  be  the  determination  of  some  to 
yield  to  no  such  control,  nevertheless,  if  the  evan- 
gelic history  be  true,  "  one  is  our  Master,  even 
Christ ;" — He  is  our  Master  in  abstract  speculation 
—our  Master  in  religious  belief— our  Master  in 
morals,  and  in  the  ordering  of  every  day's  affairs. 

It  will  readily  be  admitted  that  this  our  first 
position,  if  it  be  firm,  sweeps  away,  at  a  stroke,  a 
hundred  systems  of  religion,  ancient  and  modern, 
which  either  have  not  professed  to  rest  upon  historic 
truth,  or  which  have  notoriously  failed  in  making 
good  any  such  pretension.  These  various  schemes 
need  not  be  named  ; — they  barely  merit  an  enu- 
meration : — they  are  susceptible  of  no  distinct  refu- 
tation ;  for  they  are  baseless,  powerless,  obsolete. 

Say  you  that  Christianity  is  intolerant  in  thus 
excluding  all  other  systems  ?  But  must  it  not  be 
exclusive  of  every  other,  if  it  be  true  ?  Let  us  have 
a  religion,  willing  to  walk  abreast  with  other  reli- 
gions— religions  affirming  what  it  denies,  and  de- 
nying what  it  affirms,  when  we  admit  mathemati- 
cal or  physical  sciences,  equally  indulgent  towards 
what  must  be  purely  absurd,  if  themselves  are  not 


CHRISTIANITY.  55 

so  !    Yet  an  exclusive  religion  is  not  therefore  an 
intolerent  one.     An  intolerant  religion,   is 

gion  of  a  sect  —and  of  a  sect  in  fear,    j^&fc 

v  'r 


II. 


Our  second  proposition,  chiming  assent,  if  the 
first  be  admitted,  is, 

THAT   CHRISTIANITY  is  A  RELIGION  OF  FACTS 

WITH  WHICH  ALL  MEN,  WITHOUT  EXCEPTION  AND 
WITHOUT  DISTINCTION,  AND  IN  AN  EQUAL  DEGREE, 
ARE  PERSONALLY  CONCERNED, 

The  very  opposite  characteristic  has  attached  to 
every  scheme  of  natural  religion,  as  well  as  to 
every  corruption  of  Christianity,  from  the  first  cen- 
tury onward  ;  and  it  is  to  be  especially  noted  that, 
just  in  proportion  as  such  systems,  whether  pagan 
or  nominally  Christian,  have  worn  an  aspect  of  ele- 
vation, and  have  been  fraught  with  moral  energy, 
or  a  power  to  control  the  passions,  they  have,  with 
so  much  the  more  arrogance,  insisted  upon,  or  ta- 
citly assumed  the  rule  of  spiritual  caste  ;  and  have 
laboured  to  effect  a  distribution  of  men  into  classes 
— patrician,  or  plebeian  ; — spiritual,  or  natural,  by 
the  destination  of  nature. 

But  Christianity  is  therefore  a  Spiritual  religion^ 
and  it  moves  the  human  heart  from  its  depths,  and 


56  ON     SPIRITUAL 

confers  a  substantial  dignity  upon  man,  because  it 
attaches  a  sovereign  importance  to  those  elements 
of  our  moral  constitution  in  respect  of  which  the 
natural  or  the  artificial  distinctions  that  subsist  be- 
tween man  and  man,  be  they  what  they  may,  must 
always  seem  trivial.  Christianity  addresses  men, 
only  or  chiefly  as  they  stand  related  to  God  ;  and  in 
the  presence  of  the  Infinite,  of  what  account  are 
the  differences  of  the  finite  ? 

This  characteristic  of  Christianity — that  it  pro- 
pounds truth  to  all,  and  demands  to  be  considered, 
examined  and  accepted  by  men  individually,  is 
more  peculiar  than  we,  in  modern  times,  can  easi- 
ly imagine  ;  for  this  great  principle,  given  to  the 
world  by  the  Gospel,  has  now  so  diffused  itself 
through  the  atmosphere  of  the  world  of  mind,  that 
we  breathe  it  unconsciously.  But  never,  until  it 
was  proclaimed  by  the  Apostles,  had  it  been  sur- 
mised, either  by  Greek  or  Jew,  that  Truth,  sacred 
Truth,  the  brightest  daughter  of  the  skies,  might 
be  vulgarized,  and  offered  to  the  acceptance  of  the 
mass  of  mankind. 

In  the  ancient  world,  Truth,  whether  theological 
or  physical,  was,  like  the  costly  perfumes  of  the 
East,  an  exquisite  luxury,  which  should  be  found 
only  within  marble  palaces.  But  in  the  modern 
world,  and  this  vast  change  is  attributable  mainly  to 
the  spread  of  Christianity,  truth  lias  become,  like 


CHRISTIANITY.  57 

the  very  breezes  of  heaven,  common  property,  and 
is  everywhere  sweet,  salutary,  free  ;  and  enjoyed 
with  equal  zest  in  the  cottage  and  the  palace. 

By  no  means  so  strange  to  the  ear  of  the  ancient 
world  was  the  doctrine  of  the  future  life,  and  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  as  was  this  doctrine,  That 
Truth  is  every  man's  concernment,  every  man's 
right,  and  every  man's  most  necessary  possession. 
The  apostolic  voice,  sounding  throughout  the  an- 
cient world,  and  calling  upon  "  all  men  everywhere 
to  repent,  and  to  believe  the  Gospel,"  besides  its 
direct  religious  import,  carried  an  inevitable,  though 
latent  inference,  which  has  effected  the  greatest  of 
all  the  revolutions  that  have  marked  the  intellectual 
condition  of  mankind.  This  challenge  to  repent 
and  to  believe,  awakened  in  every  bosom  a  sense 
of  responsibility,  altogether  new  ; — putting  as  it  did 
every  human  being  in  a  position  of  direct  relation- 
ship to  God — the  Judge  of  all ;  and  fixing  in  the 
minds  of  all  a  deep  conviction  that  the  difference 
between  truth  and  error,  is  of  infinite  consequence 
to  men,  individually. 

The  promulgation  of  this  Christian  principle  gave 
a  death-blow,  on  the  one  hand,  to  despotism,  both 
spiritual  and  civil ;  and  on  the  other  to  sophistry, 
whether  philosophic  or  religious.  For  if  every 
man  be  obliged,  as  he  will  answer  it  to  God,  to  pos- 
sess himself  of  truth,  he  must  be  free  ; — free — not 


58  ONSPIRITUAL 

only  to  think,  but  to  speak  ; — free  to  move  ; — free 
to  go  in  quest  of  truth  ; — free  to  bring  it  home  ; — 
free  to  confer  with  his  fellows  concerning  it ;  and 
free  to  impart  what  he  has  acquired. 

Again  ;  if  truth  be  for  all,  and  if  it  be  indispensa- 
ble to  each,  it  must  break  itself  away  from  the 
erudite  frivolities  of  schools  ;  and  will  soon  come  to 
be  discussed  among  those  who  neither  could  use, 
nor  would  endure,  the  astute  methods  of  a  factitious 
logic. 

It  is  well  known  how  early,  and  with  what  dili- 
gence, and  with  what  variety  of  devices,  those  who 
had  usurped  the  direction  of  the  human  mind,  la- 
boured to  put  out  this  candle,  and  to  deny  truth 
to  all  men.  These  endeavours  actually  triumphed. 
First,  the  pernicious  "  discipline  of  the  secret,"  then 
Christianized  Gnosticism,  then  Asceticism,  then 
Hierarchical  ambition,  sealed  the  Gospel,  in  their 
turns  ;  or,  we  might  say,  clothed  the  Sun  in  sack- 
cloth.* 

The  Lutheran  reformation  broke  in  upon  this 
mystery  of  pride,  making  a  new  proclamation  of 
the  apostolic  doctrine,  that  the  Gospel,  as  a  system 
of  momentous  facts,  is  addressed  to  man  as  man, 
and  that  it  concerns  all  mfcn  without  distinction. 
Whatever  incidental  disorders  may  have  attended 

*  Some  illustrations  of  these  several  affirmations  will  be 
found  in  a  Supplemental  Note. 


CHRISTIANITY.  59 

the  new  promulgation  of  this  animating  principle, 
itself  is  not  chargeable  with  any  such  irregularities  ; 
for  to  affirm  that  every  man  should  take  heed  that 
he  knows  what  is  essential  to  his  salvation,  surely 
implies  no  disparagement  of  the  legitimate  means  of 
conveying  truth  from  those  who  know  more,  to  those 
who  know  less.  On  this  ground,  our  choice  is  not 
between  peace  and  ignorance,  on  the  one  side  ;  and 
knowledge  and  license  on  the  other ;  but  between 
the  disorders  of  ignorance — tending  always  toward 
anarchy  ;  and  the  disorders  of  knowledge,  tending 
always  toward  a  more  settled  adjustment  of  ele- 
ments. 

It  is  evident  that,  if  two  religious  systems  be 
compared,  of  which  the  one  addresses  itself  to  a 
few,  on  the  ground  of  certain  natural  advantages,  or 
of  some  artificial  prerogative  ;  while  the  other  ad- 
dresses all,  on  ground  common  to  all ;  the  latter 
must  bear,  with  the  greater  stress,  upon  the  con- 
science, because  it  descends  deeper  into  human  na- 
ture, and  has  to  do  with  motives  of  a  wider  grasp. 
Christianity  is,  for  this  very  reason,  a  spiritual  re- 
ligion— that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  power  touching  every 
principle  of  our  nature,  and  working  from  the  very 
depths  of  our  hearts,  because  it  heeds  no  distinctions 
among  those  who  are  heirs  in  common  of  immor- 
tality, are  amenable  in  common  to  eternal  justice, 


60  ON     SPIRIT  UAL 

and  are  redeemed,  one  and   all,  by  the  precious 
blood  of  the  same  Saviour. 

Within  the  Christian  system,  if  a  few  do,  in  fact, 
reach  an  eminence  not  attained  by  the  many,  it  is 
only  by  allowing  a  fuller  operation  to  motives  which 
all  might  properly  admit  in  the  very  same  degree. 

"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,"  said  the  Lord  to  his 
ministers — "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  Now,  the  highest 
conception  we  can  form  of  Spiritual  Christianity, 
as  embodied  in  the  habits,  motives,  and  conduct  of 
men,  embraces  absolutely  nothing  beyond  what 
must  come  to  be  the  ordinary  feeling  of  Christians, 
when  this  commission  shall  have  been  completed, 
and  when,  to  "  Christ,  every  knee  shall  have  bow- 
ed, every  tongue  have  made  confession  ! "  Nor  in- 
deed should  it  be  thought  possible,  that  a  religion 
destined  to  be  universal,  can  exhibit  the  harmony  of 
its  energies  in  any  single  instance,  until  it  has  be- 
come so  : — it  is  abroad  that  the  power  of  the  sum- 
mer's sun  is  felt ;  not  in  the  pencils  of  light  that 
enter  a  darkened  chamber. 

We  have  professed  that  we  shall  ask  nothing  on 
behalf  of  spiritual  religion  which  does  not  neces- 
sarily flow  from  the  admission,  that  Christianity  is 
historically  true  ;  but  if  true,  then  the  commission 
which  we  have  cited  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature,  is  not  merely  a  command  to  promulgate 


CHRISTIANITY.  61 

saving  truth,  but  an  implicit  command  also,  ad- 
dressed to  every  creature,  to  receive  it.  And  let  it 
be  considered  that  the  fact  of  coming  within  the 
range  of  this  proclamation  can  be  regarded  as  an 
indifferent  circumstance,  only  on  the  supposition 
that  the  proclamation  itself  has  not  issued  from  a 
Sovereign  Power.  What  may  be  the  future  des- 
tiny of  the  millions  of  the  human  family  upon 
whose  ear  this  sound  has  never  fallen,  it  were  worse 
than  idle  to  conjecture.  Be  it  what  it  may,  it  must 
differ,  in  a  forensic  sense,  from  that  of  those  who 
have  heard  it.  An  instantaneous  change  in  a  man's 
forensic  position,  or  in  his  personal  relationship  to 
government,  is  a  circumstance  not  unusual  in  civil 
affairs  ;  and  more  than  a  few  passages  of  the  New 
Testament  support  the  inference  that  it  holds  in 
the  administration  of  heaven,  and  that  the  mere  fact 
of  having  been  formally  challenged  by  heaven  to 
repent,  draws  with  it  consequences  as  endless  as 
immortality. 

III. 

We  thus  reach  our  THIRD  PROPOSITION,  which 
is  this,THAT  CHRISTIANITY,  AS  A  RELIGION  OF  FACTS, 
INDUCES  A  NEW  RELATIONSHIP  BETWEEN  MAN  AND 
HIS  MAKER. 

A  vindictive  power,  sure  of  its  purpose,  gives  no 
notice  of  its  approach.  But  if  an  absolute  Sovereign 
6 


62  ONSPIRITUAL 

encounters  the  guilty  on  his  path,  before  the  day  of 
trial,  and  challenges  his  submission,  a  purpose  of 
grace  may  fairly  be  inferred  from  such  an  act  of 
condescension.  This  condescension  however  to- 
ward the  guilty,  does  not  leave  him  on  the  ground 
he  previously  occupied  ;  for  disobedience  thence- 
forward takes  the  character  of  contumacy ;  and 
continued  resistance  may  then  be  construed  as  trea- 
son. The  Gospel,  even  rejected,  has  therefore 
induced  a  new  and  a  permanent  relationship  between 
man  and  his  Creator. 

But  how  new  and  intimate  is  that  relationship 
which  it  induces  when  the  offered  reconciliation  is 
accepted  ! 

It  may  be  well  to  measure  the  vastness  of  the 
interval  which  has  been  passed  over,  when  such  a 
relationship  commences. 

Among  the  many  instances  in  which  truth  has 
been,  as  we  might  say,  furtively  obtained  from 
Christianity,  and  made  to  grace  systems  not  en- 
titled to  the  credit  they  confer,  is  this  of  the  paternal 
relationship  assumed  to  exist  between  man  and  his 
Creator. 

On  the  ground  of  natural,  or  as  we  should  say, 
Abstract  Theology,  the  bold  assumption  of  this  re- 
lationship can  by  no  means  be  made  good,  in  a 
satisfactory  manner  ;  unless  indeed  we  assign  a 
very  vague  sense  to  the  phrase,  and  intend  nothing 


CHRISTIANITY.  63 

more  by  it  than  a  wide  benevolence,  altogether  re- 
gardless of  individual  welfare  ;  and  which  is  to  be 
traced  no  further  than  appears  in  the  beneficent 
operation  of  general  laws.  But  surely  the  paternal 
relationship  involves  much  more  than  this  ! 

And  let  it  be  considered  how  vapid  and  cold,  at 
the  very  best,  are  any  sentiments  of  devotion  which 
rest  strictly  on  the  ground  of  abstract  theology. 
Grant  it,  that  the  human  mind,  and  especially  as 
aided  by  the  discoveries  of  modern  science,  does 
hold  a  sort  of  communion  with  the  Infinite  Mind. 
— Man,  with  the  mechanical  aids  of  modern  science 
in  his  hand,  stands  on  his  turret  of  observation,  mid- 
way in  the  field  of  the  universe — an  intelligent 
spectator  of  the  movements  of  infinite  wisdom  and 
power;  for  it  is  true  that  the  procedures  of  the 
infinite  mind,  are,  to  the  finite  mind,  of  an  intelli- 
gible quality.  Fitness,  that  is  to  say,  the  adaptation 
of  means  to  an  end,  is  the  ground  of  this  intellectual 
correspondence  between  man  and  the  Creator  of 
the  world.  Yet  this  correspondence  does  not  merit 
to  be  designated  as  a  communion  ;  for  it  has  no  re- 
turn. We  gaze  with  delight  upon  the  wonders  of 
the  universe  ;  and  once  and  again,  perhaps,  admira- 
tion bursts  aloud  from  our  lips. — We  hail  the  Parent 
of  all :  — we  invoke  the  ever-present  Power,  and  we 
offer  him  our  homage.  But  the  feeble  sounds  of 
praise  are  lost  in  the  vault  of  heaven !  there  is  none 


64  ONSPIRITUAL 

to  answer  us  ;  there  is  none  to  accept  the  language 
of  our  hearts  !  MIND  indeed  is  before  us ;  and  an 
infinite  energy  of  intelligence  is  in  movement  in  our 
view  ;  but  then  this  Energy  works  its  work,  heed- 
ing us  not.  It  is  seen  upholding  systems  incalcu- 
lably remote  ;  and  again  it  takes  its  circuit  near 
to  the  very  ground  on  which  we  stand ;  and  we 
trace,  with  our  microscope,  the  infinite  Power,  at 
work  in  the  herbage  beneath  our  feet.  But  toward 
us  this  Power — this  Intelligence — this  Goodness, 
is  ever  silent.  Although,  by  abstract  reasoning,  we 
may  have  convinced  ourselves  that  the  creative 
power  must  be  at  every  moment,  and  everywhere 
in  operation,  yet,  so  far  as  appears,  or  if  we  consult 
only  our  instinctive  impressions,  we  might  believe 
the  vast  frame-work  of  nature  to  be  the  forgot- 
ten product  of  a  Power  which  long  ago  had  taken 
its  departure  from  its  finished  mechanism,  and 
which  will  never  return ;  and  is  now  occupied  on 
some  field  of  exercise  immensely  remote  ! 

A  mournful  sense  of  the  want  of  reciprocity  be- 
longs to  those  emotions  with  which,  when  untaught 
by  revelation,  Man  contemplates  the  order  and 
beauty  of  the  universe.  Nor  is  this  the  whole  of 
our  disadvantage,  in  a  religious  view ;  for,  eager 
and  ratiocinative  as  is  the  human  mind,  it  cannot 
but  happen  that,  in  our  contemplations  of  nature, 
considered  as  the  work  of  the  Creator,  the  pre- 


CHRISTIANITY,  65 

mises  should  engage  more  attention  than  the  con- 
clusion. And  it  is  more  and  more  so,  in  proportion 
as  science  becomes  less  theoretic  and  more  exact ; 
less  a  matter  of  sentiment,  and  more  of  calculation  ; 
less  a  delight  of  our  leisure,  and  more  the  arduous 
occupation  of  our  lives.  What,  in  fact,  is  the  the- 
ology of  natural  philosophy,  but  a  formal  in- 
ference, which  courtesy  demands  to  be  noted  on  the 
closing  page  of  a  treatise,  and  which  we  have  post- 
poned to  that  page,  lest  it  should  interrupt,  even 
for  a  moment,  the  eager  course  of  our  inquiries  ? 

In  the  hope  of  getting  near  to  the  Deity,  on  some 
other  path  than  that,  either  of  philosophy,  or  of  the 
Christian  revelation,  the  Mystic,  patiently  enduring 
the  hunger  and  thirst  of  the  soul  for  divine  refresh- 
ments, goes  on  a  pilgrimage  over  a  sandy  desert  in 
search  of  the  temple  of  God,  which  he  supposes 
somewhere  to  be  discoverable  on  earth,  but  which 
he  never  finds.  Mysticism,  without  the  animation 
of  philosophy,  and  barren  of  its  rational  inferences, 
gathers  no  vital  warmth  in  its  endless  circuits  of 
meditation ;  nor  can  it,  any  more  than  philosophy, 
pretend  to  enjoy  an  affectionate  communion  with 
the  Infinite  Mind.  The  Mystic  sits  in  silent  ex- 
pectation, from  day  to  day,  from  year  to  year,  upon 
the  steps  of  the  royal  palace ;  but  never  yet  has 
he  exchanged  a  smile  of  recognition  with  the 
Sovereign. 


66  ON     SPIRITUAL 

How  different  is  that  communion  of  the  heart 
with  God  which  Christianity  opens  before  us  !  The 
Christian,  looking  on  the  right  to  philosophy,  on  the 
left  to  mysticism  ; — looking  on  all  sides  in  search 
of  any  who  may  compete  with  him,  says,  with  a 
cordial  animation,  "  Truly  our  communion  is  with 
the  Father." 

Either  we  ourselves  must  have  very  cold  pa- 
rental feelings,  or  we  allow  ourselves  a  very  im- 
proper application  of  the  word — Father,  to  the  su- 
preme benevolence,  when  what  we  actually  intend 
by  it  is  nothing  more  than  that  comprehensive  good- 
ness from  which  all  creatures,  in  their  several  ranks, 
draw  their  supplies  ;  and  which  is  equally  rich  in 
its  bounty  toward  the  conscious,  and  the  uncon- 
scious, toward  the  grateful,  and  the  ungrateful ; 
toward  the  pious,  and  toward  the  wicked. 

What  then  is — paternal  love  ?  It  is  not  the  sim- 
ple benevolence  of  a  superior  toward  the  dependent 
beings  who  may  sit  at  the  same  board.  No,  a 
Father's  love  is  a  fondness  for  the  persons  indi- 
vidually, and  severally,  of  his  family  :  it  is  peculiar, 
it  is  indestructible,  it  is  not  diminished  toward  each, 
in  being  shared  by  many  ;  it  is  whole  and  entire  for 
for  each.  It  is  a  concentrated  desire  for  the 
well-being  of  each  singly  ; — a  desire  carried  for- 
ward through  all  the  details  of  family  nurture  and 
provision.  A  Father's  love  grasps  the  object  of  its 
love,  nor  quits  its  hold ;  nor  consents  to  substitute 


CHRISTIANITY.  67 

one  object  of  fondness  for  another.  Nor  merely  so  ; 
for  not  content  in  securing  the  good  of  its  object, 
it  looks  for,  nor  can  dispense  with,  a  warm  return 
of  the  same  personal  fondness.  Is  a  Father  satisfied 
in  providing  a  fortune  for  his  children,  and  in  send- 
ing them  well  abroad,  just  as  a  legal  guardian 
might  do  ?  A  Father  must  have  a  reciprocity  of 
love,  or  he  is  not  happy.  The  heart  of  a  Father 
yearns  to  receive,  every  day,  the  undoubted  ex- 
pressions of  filial  affection. 

Is  then  God  our  Father  ?  The  Gospel  declares 
it,  as  a  fundamental  truth ;  and  in  opening  up,  by 
instances,  the  import  of  this  declaration,  it  shows 
that  this  language  of  sacred  affection  is  to  be  under- 
stood, not  in  a  sense  lowered  and  vague,  as  com- 
pared with  that  which  it  bears  in  its  ordinary  ac- 
ceptation ;  but  in  a  sense  of  incalculably  greater 
intensity  and  depth. 

Genuine  piety  commences  at  the  moment  when 
the  love  of  our  heavenly  Father  towards  ourselves 
individually,  as  his  children,  is  distinctly  recognised. 
The  earliest  movements  of  the  new  life  of  the  soul 
take  this  very  character.  "  As  many  as  are  led  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,"  they  are  taught  that  they  are 
"  the  sons  of  God,"  and  find  that  they  have  not 
received  "  the  spirit  of  bondage  again,  to  fear ;" 
but  "  the  spirit  of  adoption,"  whereby  they  invoke 
God  as  their  Father.  "  The  Spirit  itself  bearing 


68  ONSPIRITUAL 

witness  with  their  spirits,  that  they  are  the  children 
of  God." 

It  is  this  filial  sentiment — the  peculiarity  of  Chris- 
tian piety,  which  brightens  the  enjoyments  of  life, 
even  the  most  common  of  them,  with  a  sense  that,  in 
our  obscure  homes,  we  are  sitting,  from  day  to  day, 
at  the  board  which  our  heavenly  Father  has  spread. 
It  is  this  feeling  which  mitigates  and  sanctifies  af- 
fliction ;  wherein,  even  when  the  sharpest,  we  dis- 
cern a  token  of  the  truth  that  God  is  "  dealing  with 
us  as  with  sons,"  and  is  in  fact  preparing  us  for  our 
home.  It  is  this  same  affection — the  distinct  filial 
sentiment,  which  dispels  the  terrors  of  death ;  while 
the  Christian  believes  that  the  Father  of  spirits  is 
removing  a  member  of  his  family  from  a  less  to  a 
more  desirable  abode. 

If  Christian  principles  be  thoroughly  admitted, 
the  Christian's  home,  even  under  these  inclement 
skies,  differs  but  in  circumstance  from  the  mansion 
preparing  for  him  above.  "  If  a  man  love  me," 
said  Jesus  to  his  disciples,  "  he  will  keep  my  words, 
and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come 
unto  him,  and  will  make  our  abode  with  him." 

The  intimate  and  affectionate  relationship  opened 
between  the  individual  Christian  and  his  heavenly 
Father  finds  its  field  of  exercise  in  two  principles 
very  decisively  pronounced  in  the  inspired  writings, 
as  well  of  the  Old  as  of  the  New  Testament : — we 


CHRISTIANITY.  69 

mean  the  doctrine  of  a  particular  providence,  and 
that  of  the  proper  efficacy  of  prayer,  in  relation  to 
the  ordinary  events  of  life.  It  is  easy  to  see  in 
what  manner  a  cordial  belief  of  these  principles 
tends  to  give  vivacity  and  intensity  to  the  religious 
affections  ;  for  it  is  thus  that  the  very  same  world 
of  cares,  fears,  hopes,  which  tends  to  obliterate  the 
moral  sentiments  of  other  men,  becomes,  to  the 
affectionate  Christian,  an  efficacious  discipline  of 
faith  and  love. 

We  have  named  as  two,  the  doctrines  of  a  par- 
ticular providence,  and  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer, 
though  in  fact  they  are  only  two  expressions  of  one 
great  truth.  Both  are  so  explicitly  taught  in  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,  and  both  are  so  amply 
confirmed  by  precept  and  example,  and  so  much 
of  what  is  called  Christian  experience  hinges  upon 
both,  that  the  truth  of  Christianity  itself  may  seem 
to  be  staked  upon  the  certainty  of  them  ;  nor  can 
it  be  doubted  that,  with  many  cultured  minds,  a 
factitious  difficulty  believed  to  be  fatal  to  both,  has 
had  much  influence  in  keeping  alive  a  painful  un- 
certainty, or  a  reserved  scepticism  on  the  subject 
of  religion.  For  if  it  be  thought  absolutely  impos- 
sible to  reconcile  a  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer, 
either  with  the  operation  of  general  laws,  or  with 
the  dogma  of  necessity,  or  even  with  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  divine  foreknowledge  and  predesti- 


70  ONSPIRITUAL 

nation  of  events,  how  shall  we  believe  Christianity 
itself  to  be  true  ? 

To  hide  from  themselves  the  formidable  front  of 
this  difficulty,  some,  with  amazing  inconsideration, 
and  in  violation  of  the  clearest  axioms  of  abstract 
science,  have  taken  refuge  in  the  supposition  of  a 
controlling  providence  in  respect  to  great  events, 
and  none  in  respect  of  small ;  as  if  mountains  might 
be  subject  to  one  law  of  gravitation,  and  mole-hills 
to  another  ;  or  as  if  it  were  possible  to  make  good 
any  philosophical  distinction  between  great  events 
and  small  ;  or  as  if  a  great  event  were  any  thing 
else  than  a  congeries  of  small  events,  regarded  as 
one  only  in  relation  to  certain  consequences  thence 
resulting  !  Or  some  will  persuade  themselves — to 
such  confusions  of  thought  are  we  liable,  that  the 
divine  providence  comes  in,  at  times,  to  avert  the  con- 
sequences which  must  result  from  its  own  general 
laws,  were  they  left  to  take  their  customary  course  ! 
What  a  conception  is  this  -of  infinite  wisdom  as 
employed  in  the  government  of  the  world  !  Should 
we  think  well  of  a  mechanist  who,  in  any  such 
manner,  should  have  to  put  his  hand  to  his  work  ? 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  those  who,  coolly 
regarding  the  notion  of  a  particular  providence,  and 
of  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  as  illusions,  or  vulgar 
prejudices,  and  yet  finding  it  impossible  to  rid  them- 
selves, as  professed  Christians,  of  the  duty  of  prayer, 


CHRISTIANITY.  71 

resort  to  a  supposition,  equally  vapid  and  prepos- 
terous, That  the  sole  efficacy,  or  reason  of  prayer, 
turns  upon  its  reflex,  or  secondary  influence  upon 
the  mind  of  the  worshipper,  as  an  expression  of  the 
devout  affections.  As  if  reasonable  men  might  be 
persuaded  to  continue,  with  sincere  earnestness, 
any  exercise  whatever,  which  was  well  understood 
to  be  destitute  of  all  direct  utility  !  A  notion  such 
as  this  resembles  the  supposition  that  we  might 
continue  to  enjoy  the  accommodation  of  moonlight, 
even  if  the  sun  were  blotted  from  the  planetary 
system  !  A  reflective  influence  may  indeed  be  of 
very  high  importance ;  but  it  must  suppose  always 
the  reality  of  a  direct  influence. 

In  thus  venturing  to  speak  of  the  difficulties 
attaching  to  these  doctrines  as  factitious,  we  are 
not  chargeable  with  the  presumption  of  undertaking 
to  make  intelligible  the  intricate  movements  of  the 
moral  universe.  It  is  not  indeed  given  to  man  to 
penetrate  these ;  yet  it  is  always  within  his  power, 
and  therefore  it  is  his  duty,  to  dispel  any  confusion 
that  may  belong  to  his  modes  of  thinking,  by  a 
stricter  analysis  of  the  notions  over  which  he  has 
a  perfect  command.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm 
then,  that,  whatever  seeming  difficulty  besets  our 
Christian  faith,  on  this  ground,  it  is  easily  removable 
by  the  methods  of  analysis,  as  applied  to  abstract 
thought. 


72  ONSPIRITUAL 

To  enter  upon  any  such  analysis,  on  the  present 
occasion,  were  out  of  place.  Nevertheless,  on  the 
ground  of  a  careful  consideration  of  the  subject,  we 
must  profess  to  believe  the  doctrine  of  a  particular 
providence,  and  of  the  proper  efficacy  of  prayer 
— inseparably  connected  as  they  are  with  the  fer- 
vour of  Christian  piety,  to  be  liable  to  no  solid 
objection. 

It  is  amid  the  vivid  alternations  of  joy  and  sorrow, 
and  under  what  may  be  called  the  homely  discipline 
of  the  Christian's  daily  course,  and  as  animated  by 
the  belief  of  the  truths  to  which  we  have  just 
alluded,  that  the  devout  affections  are  cherished, 
and  are  rendered  at  once  keen  and  profound ;  while, 
by  the  very  admixture  of  ingredients  drawn  from 
the  passing  interests  of  earth,  extravagance  is 
excluded,  and  a  simple  practical  air  is  given  to  the 
religious  life. 

It  will  not  be  forgotten  that  the  intimate  filial 
relationship  which  the  Christian  scheme  establishes 
between  man  and  his  Maker,  results  from,  and  is 
inseparably  connected  with  the  mediation  of  Christ. 
Being  "  reconciled  through  him,  we  have  access  unto 
the  Father ; "  and  a  fixed  principle  is  it,  rendered 
unalterable,  at  once  by  the  Divine  sanctity,  and  the 
polluted  condition  of  man,  that  "  no  man  cometh 
unto  the  Father" — none  can  claim  the  privileges  of 
sonship,  but  "by  the  Son" — through  his  interces- 


CHRISTIANITY.  73 

sion,  and  as  the  consequence  of  his  propitiatory 
death. 

This  great  truth,  adverted  to  in  this  place,  lest 
we  should  seem  forgetful  of  what  is  so  peculiarly 
a  Christian  doctrine,  will  demand  to  be  considered 
more  distinctly  hereafter.  At  present  we  have  to 
do  with  the  fact  merely,  and  to  which  we  direct 
especial  attention,  constituting  as  it  does  one  of  the 
most  marked  of  the  visible  characteristics  of  Chris- 
tianity— and  one  which  removes  to  a  wide  distance 
every  other  system  of  religion,  whether  claiming 
to  be  Christian,  or  not. 

It  is  remarkable  that  our  Lord,  while  abstaining 
from  a  distinct  enunciation  of  that  scheme  of  re- 
demption which,  before  his  death  and  resurrection, 
remained  incomplete ;  yet  invariably,  when  ad- 
dressing his  sincere  followers,  encouraged  them  to 
look  with  affectionate  confidence  to  "  his  Father, 
and  their  Father  ;"  and  when  interpreting  his  own 
language,  in  this  behalf,  by  apologues,  he  left  them 
no  room  to  doubt  that  they  were  to  believe  them- 
selves individually  the  objects  of  the  Divine  care 
and  love. 

Previously  therefore  to   any  inquiry   as  to  the 

Truths  peculiar  to  Christianity,  this  intimate  and 

affectionate  relationship  established  between  man 

and  his  Maker,  as  reconciled  through  Christ,  pre- 

7 


74  -ON     SPIRITUAL 

sents  itself  to  our  notice,  and  should  be  regarded 
as  a  prominent  feature  of  the  Christian  system. 

Will  it  be  said  that  our  Lord,  or  his  Apostles, 
give  encouragement,  in  any  way,  to  an  unhallowed 
familiarity  in  our  approaches  to  God ;  or  that  the 
reverence  due  to  the  infinite  Majesty  is  infringed 
by  them  ?  Certainly  not.  The  contrary  is  most 
evident.  We  see  then  that,  according  to  the  IDEA 
of  the  Christian  system,  the  deepest  reverence  is 
still  compatible  with  an  affectionate  and  filial  con- 
fidence, involving  the  belief  that  the  individual 
Christian  is  the  object  of  a  paternal  regard. 

On  what  scheme  this  adjustment  of  reverence 
and  affection  may  be  accomplished,  is  an  after 
question.  We  now  merely  state  the  fact,  and 
appeal  to  it  as  a  most  striking  proof,  at  once  of  the 
spirituality,  and  of  the  benign  tendency  of  the 
Gospel,  and  of  its  immeasurable  superiority  to 
every  other  religious  system,  whether  contemplative 
or  superstitious. 

Within  the  entire  range  of  antiquity  we  meet 
with  absolutely  nothing  that  approaches  this  charac- 
teristic Christian  feeling ; — except  indeed  what  we 
find  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  especially  the 
Psalms.  And  as  to  the  several  perversions  of 
Christianity,  from  the  first  century  to  the  present 
time,  they  stand  condemned,  one  and  all,  by  this 
very  test,  if  by  no  other. 


CHRISTIANITY.  75 

So  far  as  such  systems  have  leaned  toward  intel- 
lectuality and  abstraction,  they  have  in  the  same 
degree  excluded  the  warmth  and  simplicity  of 
Christian  piety.  While  such  as  have  been  marked 
by  a  tendency  to  superstition,  have,  as  uniformly, 
and  as  completely,  removed  the  worshipper  to  a 
distance,  where  dread  and  anxiety  must  prevail 
over  every  happier  sentiment.  Or  if,  under  any 
such  systems,  the  fanatic  has  broken  through  these 
restraints,  he  has  drawn  near  to  the  throne  not  with 
calm  filial  affection,  but  with  the  effrontery  of  an 
evil  spirit. 

Let  this  one  test  be  applied  to  that  scheme  of 
pietism  which,  in  imitation  of  the  style  of  antiquity, 
is  at  this  moment,  and  with  so  much  diligence  and 
success,  propagated  around  us.  This  restored  su- 
perstition is  in  part  poetic  and  imaginative  ; — in  part 
it  is  ritual  and  servile.  That  is  to  say — according 
to  the  constitution  of  minds,  it  is  either  a  mild  and 
picturesque  enthusiasm,  or  a  stern  and  severe  fana- 
ticism ; — both  meeting  within  the  same  ritual  forms, 
and  worshipping  beneath  the  same  roof. 

Now,  as  to  the  first  of  these  species  of  pietism,  it 
is  a  principle  of  human  nature,  well  understood,  that 
the  genuine  workings  of  the  heart  are  in  no  manner 
more  effectively  repressed  and  excluded  than  when 
they  become  transmuted  into  the  illusive  form  of  a 
poetic  enthusiasm.  What  is  general  benevolence — 


76  ON     SPIRITUAL 

what  is  friendship — what  is  filial  love,  when  they 
slide  off  into  romantic  sentiment  ? — nothing  better 
are  they  than  shining  exhalations — false  and  cold  ! 
Attractive  as  may  be  this  imaginative  guise  of  piety, 
it  is  not  the  piety — it  is  not  the  filial  love  of  the 
Christian  system ;  and  where  the  one  is  cherished 
the  other  disappears. 

As  to  the  stern,  or  fanatical  species  of  supersti- 
tious piety — that  of  the  emaciated  devotee,  we  need 
hardly  say  that,  as  well  the  theological  notions 
whence  it  takes  its  rise,  as  the  temper  it  generates, 
are  equally  incompatible  with  the  principles  and 
with  the  spirit  of  that  life-giving  piety  which  our 
Lord's  discourses  tend  to  cherish. 


IV. 


We  have  said — That  Christianity  is  a  religion 
not  of  notions,  but  of  Facts  : — That  in  these  facts 
all  men  have  the  same,  and  the  deepest  concern- 
ment, and,  That  a  cordial  admission  of  them  as 
true,  induces  a  new  and  intimate  relationship  be- 
tween man  and  his  Maker.  We  have  then  to 
assume  our  ultimate  position,  in  thus  considering 
the  exterior  characteristics  of  the  Christian  scheme ; 
and  it  is  this — 

THAT  THE  FACTS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  WHEN  AD- 


CHRISTIANITY.  77 

MITTED  AS  TRUE,  ARE  OF  A  KIND  TO  EXCITE,  AND 
TO  MAINTAIN  IN  ACTIVITY,  THE  WARMEST  AND  THE 
MOST  PROFOUND  EMOTIONS  OF  WHICH  MEN  ARE  SUS- 
CEPTIBLE, ACCORDING  TO  THE  INDIVIDUAL  CONSTI- 
TUTION OF  THEIR  MINDS. 

A  vastly  higher  amount  of  religious  feeling  than 
that  which  ordinarily  entitles  a  man,  by  the  world's 
courtesy,  to  the  designation  of  an  enthusiast,  may 
yet  be  rigorously  defended,  as  still  falling  short  of 
what  the  nature  of  the  case  would  justify.  He  is 
an  enthusiast,  surely — not  who  feels  strongly  on  an 
occasion  which  would  justify  feelings  much  more 
intense  ;  but  he  whose  emotions,  whether  more  or 
less  acute,  are  spurious  ;  that  is  to  say,  are  not  of 
the  quality  which  the  occasion  demands  ;  and 
whose  sentiments  want  heart,  truth,  proportion.  A 
man  is  no  enthusiast  who,  with  an  intensity  of  min- 
gled love  and  fear,  rushes  forward  to  rescue  a  wife 
and  children  from  imminent  peril.  But  we  hold  in 
contempt  one  who,  at  such  a  moment,  should  think 
to  act  the  hero,  and  save  his  family  with  £clat. 
We  blame  him,  not  for  feeling  too  much  ;  but  for 
feeling  too  little  ;  and  this  is  indeed  always  the 
fault  of  the  enthusiast,  and  of  the  fanatic  too  ;  and 
even  when  his  spurious  passions  mount  to  the  high- 
est pitch. 

The  wild  extravagance  of  the  enthusiast,  or  of 
the  fanatic,  and  the  torpor  of  the  formalist,  althougk 
7* 


78  ON     SPIRITUAL 

to  the  eye  they  may  range  as  extremes,  are,  in 
truth,  only  varieties  of  the  same  lethargy  of  the 
moral  faculties.  Let  the  enthusiast  and  the  formal- 
ist be  both  awakened  to  a  cordial  belief  of  the  facts 
of  Christianity,  and  the  difference  between  the  two 
will  almost  disappear. 

But  now,  the  objects  of  religious  belief— the  facts 
of  Christianity,  being  in  themselves  of  boundless 
range,  and  our  personal  concernment  with  them 
being  of  incalculable  moment,  whither,  it  may  be 
asked,  shall  we  be  carried,  if,  with  such  impulses 
around  us,  we  fully  surrender  ourselves  to  their 
influence  ?  "  After  all,"  says  the  objector,  "  is  not 
Christianity  a  religion  of  sobriety  and  reason?" 
Assuredly  it  is  so,  and  it  is  so  because  its  seat  is  in 
the  moral  faculties,  which  are  never  profoundly 
moved,  but  when  they  are  moved  tranquilly.  The 
characteristic  of  the  affections  is  depth,  not  visible 
agitation. 

It  is  on  this  very  ground  that  Christianity  tri- 
umphs, as  compared  with  every  other  religious  sys- 
tem, ancient  or  modern,  which  has  powerfully 
affected  the  human  mind.  These  systems,  so  far 
as  they  have  been  powerful,  at  all,  have  been  reli- 
gions of  agitation.  Christianity,  on  the  contrary, 
so  far  as  it  is  effectual  for  its  own  purposes,  is  a 
religion  of  affection  and  habit,  not  of  passionate 
commotion.  Every  powerful  religion,  Christianity 


CHRISTIANITY.  79 

excepted,  has  been  either  wild  or  sullen  :  and  the 
same  is  true  of  every  corruption  of  Christianity 
itself,  in  all  the  wide  circuit  of  delusions,  commen- 
cing with  the  ascetic  frenzy,  and  ending  in  the  base 
superstition  of  the  middle  ages.  If  asceticism  be 
tranquil,  it  is  tranquil  by  apathy  :  if  superstition  be 
tranquil,  it  is  tranquil  by  the  constraint  of  dread  ; 
but  Christianity  is  at  once  tranquil  and  happy.  If 
enthusiasm  have  its  ecstasies,,  it  is  only  joyous,  so 
far  as  it  is  also  unsound. 

The  very  characteristic  of  a  genuine  warmth  of 
affection,  is,  that  it  is  so  calm,  as  to  be  liable  to  the 
control  of  reason.  Unreasonable  affection,  or  a 
doating  fondness,  is  just  so  much  the  less  constant 
and  profound,  as  it  is  less  under  command.  To 
feel  intensely — to  feel  keenly — to  feel  with  so  sove- 
reign a  force  of  emotion,  as  may  carry  a  man  through 
any  labours  or  sacrifices,  for  the  sake  of  one  be- 
loved, is  only  another  description  of  moral  serenity. 
This  even  balance  of  the  mind,  means  nothing  less 
than  a  balance  of  great  forces.  We  are  not  used 
to  speak  of  the  equilibrium  of  a  straw  ;  but  we  do 
speak  of  that  of  the  engine-beam  which  vibrates 
silently,  with  a  sort  of  omnipotence. 

Single  out  an  instance  of  a  heart  susceptible^ 
more  than  others,  of  a  tender  and  self-renouncing 
affection.  Does  not  that  chosen  heart — one  of  a 
thousaad,  float  in  the  midst  of  a  tranquil  tempera- 


80  ON     SPIRITUAL 

ment  ?  Is  not  the  beauty  of  an  unruffled  surface 
its  characteristic  grace,  and  its  very  symbol  ?  What, 
in  truth,  is  love,  but  the  equipoise  of  the  moral  and 
intellectual  faculties  ?  and  the  emotions  are  then 
the  most  intense,  when  every  faculty,  moral  and 
intellectual,  has  found  its  place  of  rest  around  that 
centre. 

Christianity  for  this  very  reason,  is  a  religion  of 
sobriety,  and  a  religion  of  self-control,  because  it 
is  a  religion  of  LOVE,  intense,  and  deep. 

"  Why,"  it  is  often  petulantly  asked — "Why,  if 
the  issues  of  the  present  life  are  of  infinite  extent, 
why  are  we  so  much  restricted  in  our  knowledge  of 
the  future  world  ?  Why  is  it  only  a  vague  report 
of  the  awful  futurity  that  reaches  the  ear  of  man  ? 
Why  is  not  the  curtain  of  the  invisible  world  some- 
times lifted?"  We  do  not  undertake  to  furnish 
what  might  be  the  most  direct  reply  to  such  a  ques- 
tion ;  but  we  may,  with  confidence,  give  a  reply, 
which  we  hold  to  be  sufficient. 

If  the  present  life  be  indeed  a  season  of  moral 
discipline,  and  an  exercise  of  those  affections  which 
are,  in  their  nature,  of  a  tranquil  order,  then  un- 
doubtedly must  the  mind  be  screened,  during  the 
season  of  this  exercise,  from  the  impulse  of  im- 
pressions which  would  at  once  overwhelm  them. 
You  say,  "  Let  me  see  the  invisible  ;  lift  the  cur- 
tain of  the  grave."  But  would  you  risk  the  con- 


CHRISTIANITY.  81 

sequences  of  such  a  discovery,  even  as  it  might 
affect  the  physical  structure  of  the  mind  ?  Cer- 
tainly the  discipline  of  the  heart,  after  such  a  reve- 
lation, would  not  be  what  now  it  is.  By  the  mere 
guidance  of  our  moral  sentiments — our  habitual 
emotions,  we  are  to  make  our  choice,  on  trying  oc- 
casions, between  virtue  and  vice  ;,  but  this  choice 
would  obey  another  and  a  very  different  law,  if  we 
had  actually  seen  the  one  in  its  native  condition — 
eternally  wedded  to  happiness ;  and  the  other  in 
the  grasp  of  misery. 

If  it  be  said,  that  the  having  heard  a  vague  report 
of  things  future  does  not  supply  motives  strong 
enough  to  fortify  the  frailty  of  human  nature,  ex- 
posed as  it  is  to  cruel  temptations  ;  we  fully  grant 
it :.  truly  it  is  not  a  listless  hearing  of  these  things, 
or  a  vague  belief  of  them,  that  will  give  effect  to 
Christianity.  What  we  have  spoken  of  is  a  cordial 
belief  of  the  Christian  verities  ;  and  such  a  belief 
is  not  to  be  expected  to  come  in  upon  the  mind 
unsought  for,  and  undesired. 

Christianity  professes  to  be  a  preparation  for 
heaven.  What  then  is  heaven  ?  or  what  must  we 
suppose  to  be  the  conditions  of  a  permanent  and 
ultimate  felicity  intended  for  beings  constituted  like 
ourselves,  and  moreover,  "  far  gone,  as  we  are> 
from  original  righteousness  ?" 

In  offering  a  reply  to  this,  question,  we  shall  not 


82  ON      SPIRITUAL 

advance  a  step  on  the  ground  of  mere  conjecture  ; 
but  shall  confine  ourselves  to  that  which  lies  clearly 
within  the  range  of  reasonable,  nay,  of  inevitable 
anticipations. 

We  ask  then,  first,  are  there  to  be  sensitive  plea- 
sures, in  a  future  state — secondary  enjoyments, 
analogous  to  the  pleasures  of  sense  in  the  present 
state  ?  Let  it  for  a  moment  be  granted  that  there 
may  be  such  ;  yet  it  is  certain  that,  if  heaven  be  a 
world  of  progressive  or  upward-tending  virtue,  the 
bent  of  all  minds  must  be  toward  enjoyments  of  a 
higher  class  than  these  :  for  a  tendency  downwards, 
or  only  an  inert  disposition  to  rest  on  the  level  of 
sensitive  pleasure,  can  be  nothing  but  sensuality, 
whether  found  on  earth  or  in  heaven. 

In  heaven,  that  is  in  a  world  of  permanent  and 
progressive  happiness,  if  there  be  at  once  higher 
and  lower  sources  of  enjoyment,  the  higher  must 
always  be  held  in  chief  esteem  ;  and  there  must  be 
a  tendency  toward  them  in  all  who  themselves  are 
to  be  permanently  and  progressively  happy. 

But  now,  shall  we  further  imagine  heaven  to 
draw  a  portion  of  its  delights  from  the  purer  sources 
of  intellectual  occupation — the  pleasures  of  reason, 
in  the  acquisition,  and  communication  of  knowl- 
edge 1  If  so,  then  sensitive  pleasure  must  subside 
to  a  lower  level ;  for  if  not,  the  inferior  would  be 
chosen  in  the  presence  of  what  is  confessedly  bet- 


CHRISTIANITY.  83 

ter ;  and  such  a  choice  is  not  merely  unwise,  but 
essentially  vicious. 

Man  however  is  formed  for  action,  still  more  than 
either  for  passive  enjoyment,  or  for  mere  contem- 
plation. He  is  so  constituted  that  the  sense  of 
enjoyment  arising  from  the  exercise  of  the  active 
faculties  is  of  a  far  more  vivid  and  commanding 
sort  than  even  the  choicest  pleasures  of  intellect. 
Let  but  a  high  field  of  action  be  opened  before 
human  minds,  and  towards  it  will  rush  the  major- 
ity ;  if  not  all.  Are  great  things  doing  ?  the 
frivolous  leave  their  amusements — Elysian  leisure 
is  broken  up ;  and  even  philosophers  leave  the 
stars  to  roll  on  while  they  come  to  take  a  part  in, 
or  to  witness  great  actions.  The  supremacy  of  the 
active  and  moral  faculties  is  attested  by  this  tenden- 
cy to  forget  and  abandon  every  other  kind  of 
enjoyment,  when  great  enterprises  are  in  progress. 

And  yet  it  is  not  action,  merely ;  but  action, 
prompted  by  lofty  motives,  and  tending  toward 
vast  results,  affecting  the  well-being  of  multitudes, 
that  sways  the  human  mind,  in  a  sovereign  manner, 
and  draws  all  toward  one  centre,  as  to  a  vortex. 

But  now  what  idea  have  we  been  used  to  enter- 
tain of  a  future  state  1  If  we  exclude  the  terrific 
supposition  of  a  world  of  anarchy — the  chaos  of 
discordant  wills — if  we  think  of  heaven  as  a  world 
of  happiness,  and  therefore  of  absolute  order,  yet 


84  ONSPIRITUAL 

of  high  activity,  it  must  be,  not  merely  a  sphere  of 
vast  movements,  and  of  the  development  of  mo- 
tives deep  and  intense  but  of  actions  and  movements 
openly  and  constantly  controlled  by  the  Supreme 
Wisdom  and  Goodness.  Heaven — a  happy  futurity, 
and  as  contrasted  with  earth,  must  be  thought  of  as 
God's  visible  kingdom,  or  his  direct  administration 
of  the  intelligent  universe. 

Heaven  must  be  a  sphere  wherein  whatever  is 
good,  and  wise,  and  just,  is  carried  forward  triumph* 
antly,  and  amid  the  joyful  acclamations  of  all.  And 
yet  it  must  be  a  world  in  which  the  series  of  events, 
as  they  are  portions  of  a  succession  which  is 
infinite,  may  often  fail  to  be  intelligible  to  finite 
minds.  What  then  follows  ? — That  a  demand  will 
as  often  be  made  upon  the  loyalty,  and  the  devout 
submission  of  such  minds.  This  is  an  inevitable 
supposition  :  the  occupants  of  heaven,  if  they  are 
to  be  constantly  happy,  must  first  have  learned  so 
to  love  God,  under  circumstances  of  perplexity 
and  trial,  as  may  fit  them  to  pass  forward  on  the 
high  road  of  duty,  with  reverent  affection,  and  with 
unshaken  constancy,  whether  or  not  the  actual 
aspect  of  affairs  may  consist  with  their  notions  of 
sovereign  goodness,  and  wisdom.  It  does  not 
appear  how  we  can  exclude  suppositions  such  as 
these  from  our  anticipations  of  a  happy  futurity. 

Are  we  prepared  to  throw  up  the  hope  of  immor- 


or  THE 


CHRISTIANITY  .V     /»  85 

. 

tality  1  If  not,  and  if  we  allow  ourselves  distinctly  to 
forecast  what  must  be  its  conditions,  under  the 
sway  of  the  attributes  of  an  Infinite  Being,  we  are 
compelled  to  grant  that  beings,  such  as  ourselves, 
and  if  undisciplined  by  Christianity,  must  have 
many  lessons  yet  to  learn  before  it  is  possible  that 
we  should  take  part  in  the  felicity  of  heaven.  We 
have  to  learn  to  be  happy  in  the  only  manner  in 
which  happiness  can  be  rendered  permanent  and 
progressive  to  intelligent  and  moral  agents.  But 
what  is  Christianity?  It  is  the  very  schooling 
which  we  feel  that  we  need  in  preparation  for  shar- 
ing in  the  only  happiness  possible  to  be  enjoyed. 

If  we  look  around,  Christianity  stands  forward, 
by  the  open  or  implicit  confession  of  all,  as  a 
heavenward  tendency  : — it  is  indeed  the  only  move-* 
ment  on  earth,  setting  toward  a  world  of  peace, 
justice,  purity,  and  love.  Or  if,  looking  upward, 
we  compel  ourselves  to  rest  upon  the  conception  of 
a  state  of  permanent  felicity — of  holy  energy,  and 
affection,  we  must  feel  that  we  need  that  culture  of 
the  purest  emotions  which  the  Gospel,  and  it  alone 
supplies. 

The  Spiritual  Christianity  then,  concerning 
which,  as  to  its  elements,  we  are  yet  more  parti- 
cularly to  inquire,  is  nothing  but  Heaven's  training 
of  fallen  man,  for  its  own  happiness. 

In  concluding  the  present  Lecture  we  invite  a 
8 


86  ONSPIRITUAL 

candid  admission  of  the  following  affirmations — not 
one  of  which,  singly,  can,  as  we  think,  be  denied, 
and  which  yet,  in  their  connection,  embrace  all  that 
we  mean  to  advance  in  behalf  of  Spiritual  Chris- 
tianity. 

We  assume  as  granted,  the  first  principles  of 
natural  (or  more  properly)  Abstract  Theology,  and 
the  belief  of  a  future  life  :  we  then  say — That  the 
happiness  of  a  future  life  must  consist  in  the  activi- 
ty of  the  benign  emotions,  as  the  impulses  of  a 
course  of  progressive  virtue  and  beneficence. 

That  a  true  religion,  considered  as  a  preparation 
for  future  happiness,  must  possess  this  character- 
istic, that  it  is  at  once  pure  in  its  ethical  principles, 
and  that  it  makes  provision  for  the  culture  of  the 
benign  emotions,  in  a  manner  at  once  efficacious 
and  happy. 

We  then  affirm,  what  must  surely  be  conceded, 
that  no  positive  religious  system,  now  extant  (and 
not  Christian)  can  pretend  to  make  any  such  pro- 
vision for  a  future  state  of  purity  and  felicity  ;  and 
moreover,  that — 

No  system  of  philosophical  deism  makes  such  a 
provision  ;  for  even  if  its  ethical  principles  were 
pure,  yet,  as  it  rests  upon  no  ground  of  positive 
evidence,  and  can  never  be  more  than  an  opinion, 
it  does  but  feebly  affect  even  the  few  who  are  the 
most  favourably  disposed  to  yield  to  such  an  iriflu- 


CHRISTIANITY.  87 

ence — and  does  not  at  all  affect  the  mass  of  man- 
kind. In  fact,  no  scheme  of  philosophical  deism 
has  ever  exerted  a  powerful  and  salutary  influence 
over  the  conduct  of  men. 

Christianity  then  has  no  rival,  considered  as  a 
positive  religion — claiming  authority — pure  in  its 
ethical  principles,  and  making  a  provision  for  the 
culture  of  the  benign  emotions  as  a  preparation  for 
the  happiness  of  a  future  state. 

But  further. — In  looking  to  Christianity  under 
the  aspect  now  mentioned,  we  must  exclude  first, 
those  systems  called  Christian,  the  obvious  inten- 
tion of  which  is  to  reduce  it  to  as  near  a  resemblance 
as  possible  to  philosophical  deism,  by  rejecting 
whatever  is  most  peculiar  to  it : — and  we  do  so, 
because  Christianity,  when  thus  reduced,  becomes 
as  powerless  and  vapid  as  deism  itself : — it  ceases 
to  be  a  positive  or  authoritative  system,  and  takes 
a  place,  quiescently,  among  mere  schemes  of  opi- 
nion. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  must  exclude  as  not 
Christian,  although  called  so,  those  systems  which, 
running  in  a  direction  opposite  to  the  philosophic 
scheme,  are  of  a  servile  character,  and  of  abject 
tendency  ;  and  which,  instead  of  giving  an  active 
and  happy  expansion  to  the  affections,  either  be- 
numb the  moral  faculties  by  dread  and  perplexity, 
or  lull  the  conscience  by  formalities. 


88  ON     SPIRITUAL,     ETC. 

In  a  word,  we  reject  as  unchristian,  on  the  one 
side,  Rationalism  ;  and  on  the  other,  Superstition. 

We  then  stand  clear  to  advance  the  unrivalled 
claims  of  the  GOSPEL  as  being — 

A  positive  and  authoritative  religion,  resting  upon 
Facts  that  are  incontrovertible. 

A  religion  pure  in  its  ethical  principles. 

A  religion  which  gives  the  fullest  and  happiest 
expansion  to  the  benign  emotions,  by  opening  be- 
fore us  a  ground  of  intimate,  affectionate,  and  yet 
reverential  communion  with  God. 

What  those  great  Truths  are  on  which  this  com- 
munion must  rest,  it  will  be  our  part,  in  the  next 
Lecture,  to  inquire. 


THE 

SECOND    LECTURE 


ON    THE    TRUTHS    PECULIAR    TO    SPIRITUAL 
CHRISTIANITY. 


SECOND  LECTURE. 


STANDING  clear  as  we  do  of  party  entanglements, 
and  therefore  free  from  the  solicitudes  of  contro- 
versy, we  must  not  affect  either  to  be  ignorant  of 
the  now  peculiar  position  of  religious  opinions,  or 
indifferent  as  to  the  result  of  what  may  so  well  be 
called  a  crisis  in  the  religious  history  of  this 
country. 

We  think  it  neither  desirable,  nor  indeed  possible, 
to  treat  the  momentous  subjects  now  before  us,  irre- 
spectively of  the  great  controversy  of  the  times. 
We  must  of  necessity  allude  to  this  controversy, 
frequently  ;  nor  can  we  profess  a  philosophic  neu- 
trality in  relation  to  questions  on  the  determination 
of  which,  as  we  confidently  believe,  the  religious, 
and,  by  consequence,  the  political  and  social  well- 
being  of  this  and  other  countries  depends. 

Disclaiming  therefore  indifference  or  neutrality, 
we  yet  hope,  in  this  and  the  following  Lectures,  to 
give  evidence  of  a  conscientious  impartiality ;  and 


92  ON     SPIRITUAL 

so  to  speak  as  shall  justify  our  profession  of  being 
the  champions  of  no  party. 

We  are  then  to  speak  of  the  Truths  which  are 
peculiar  to  Spiritual  Christianity  ;  and  therefore  in 
regard,  as  well  to  brevity,  as  to  controversial  justice, 
we  must  not  include  any  truths,  important  as  they 
may  be  in  themselves,  which  it  shares  in  common, 
either  with  natural  theology,  or  with  what  we  are 
compelled  to  regard  as  a  mutilated  Christianity. 

Moreover,  we  must  set  off,  from  our  enumeration, 
on  this  occasion,  certain  articles  of  belief,  clearly 
attested  indeed  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  ;  but 
which  are  not  properly  elements  of  the  Gospel. 
True  indeed  they  may  be,  but  they  are  more  ancient 
than  Christianity  ;  they  would  have  been  true  had 
it  never  appeared  ;  and  they  must  remain  so,  were 
it  to  be  withdrawn. 

A  due  regard  to  the  unsullied  brightness  of  the 
Christian  system  demands  this  distinction  to  be 
made,  and  to  be  much  regarded,  between  certain 
articles  which  it  assumes  to  be  true,  but  which  are 
not  of  its  substance. 

The  advocates  of  Christianity,  too  often,  as  we 
think,  have  burthened  themselves  with  the  task  of 
obviating  difficulties  connected  with  these  extra- 
neous articles  of  belief,  which,  so  far  as  they  may 
be  substantial,  press,  not  upon  the  religion  of  the 
Bible,  but  rather  upon  the  first  principles  of  natural 


CHRISTIANITY.  93 

theology.  It  is  certain  that  Christianity  neither 
aggravates  any  burthen  that  had  previously  rested 
upon  the  lot  of  man  ;  nor  imposes  any  new  burthen. 
What  the  inspired  writer  says  of  the  Divine  Being 
himself,  may  be  said  of  the  word  of  his  grace — "  It 
is  LIGHT,  and  in  it  is  no  darkness  at  all."  So  far 
as  any  such  burthens  admit  of  being  either  allevi- 
ated, or  removed,  the  whole  tendency  of  Christian- 
ity is  to  lessen  their  weight,  or  to  exempt  us  alto- 
gether from  their  pressure. 

For  example  : — Our  Lord  and  the  Apostles  ap- 
peal, with  confidence,  to  those  convictions  of  every 
human  bosom  which  declare  that  man  is  liable  to 
the  Divine  displeasure,  and  which  give  a  foreboding 
of  judgment  to  come.  They  reprove  the  sin  and 
perversity  of  men  with  all  boldness,  on  the  ground 
of  these  admitted  truths  ;  and  they  draw  the  prompt 
and  necessary  conclusion  from  the  fact  of  that  sad 
degeneracy  of  human  nature  which  is  seen  every- 
where, is  felt  always,  and  is  acknowledged,  as  often 
as  pride  is  remanded,  for  a  moment,  by  compunc- 
tion or  remorse. 

That  man  is  indeed  "  far  gone  from  original 
righteousness,"  and  that  he  neither  loves  God,  nor 
desires  the  knowledge  of  him  ;  and  that,  abandoned 
to  his  own  principles  and  resources,  he  is  destitute, 
helpless,  and  without  hope  ;  and  that  he  is  visibly 
tending  toward  an  after  state  of  still  more  open 


94  ONSPIRITUAL 

alienation  from  God — these  melancholy  truths, 
anterior  to  Christianity,  are  so  assumed  in  the 
Christian  system  that  there  can  be  no  liberty  to  call 
them  in  question  by  any  who  yield  their  faith  to  its 
authority. — They  are,  in  fact,  the  very  ground-work 
of  that  structure  of  mercy  which  is  properly  called 
— THE  GOSPEL  : — nevertheless  they  are  not  of  its 
substance. 

Our  Lord  affirms  with  distinctness  that  which,  if 
thoroughly  believed,  must  alarm  our  fears  to  the 
utmost.  This  affirmation  is  his ;  but  not  the  fact. 
The  affirmation  does  but  give  an  articulate  form  to 
that  which  may  properly  be  called  a  universal  fore- 
boding of  the  human  family.  If  it  be  said  that 
such  dark  anticipations  rest  upon  no  positive  evi- 
dence ;  yet,  and  prevalent  as  they  are,  they  must 
be  granted  to  possess  a  dim  substantiality,  upon 
which  our  Lord's  assertions  throw  a  steady  light ; 
and  we  feel  them  to  be  real. 

Such  is  the  belief,  with  all  its  appalling  conse- 
quences, that  the  human  race  has  fallen  under  the 
usurped  sway  of  an  invisible  and  malignant  power — 
the  ancient  enemy  of  God — the  outlaw  of  heaven, 
the  author  of  error  ; — first  the  seducer,  and  then  the 
tormentor  of  his  victims. 

A  dark  belief  indeed  is  this  !  but  we  gain  very 
little  by  rejecting  it,  so  long  as  the  human  family 
remains  as  far  from  virtue  as  from  happiness,  nor 


CHRISTIANITY.  95 

indicating  any  tendency  to  a  return.  So  long  as 
superstitions  the  most  frightful,  with  their  unmiti- 
gated horrors,  continue  to  press,  age  after  age,  upon 
the  larger  portion  of  mankind,  we  do  but  shift  a 
difficulty,  not  remove  it,  by  denying  the  agency  of 
an  invisible  enemy. 

This  belief,  whispered  in  all  nations,  is  uttered 
aloud  wherever  superstition  has  long  ruled  without 
a  check.  In  half  civilized  and  savage  countries, 
the  infernal  agency  flares  upon  our  sight ;  and,  if 
we  would  be  thoroughly  equitable,  ought  we  not  to 
acknowledge,  that,  in  civilized  countries,  indications 
to  the  same  effect  are  not  ambiguous.  May  it  not 
be  more  than  surmised  that  the  author  of  mischief 
who  walks  abroad  with  noisy  pomp  in  pagan  lands, 
keeps  house  among  ourselves,  and  goes  softly  ? 

Is  it  affirmed  to  be  a  blasphemy  to  suppose  that 
there  can  be  a  Satan  within  the  bounds  of  God's 
universe  ?  Alas  !  how  many  Tamerlanes,  in  an- 
cient and  in  modern  times,  have  shown  us  that  we 
are  not  at  liberty  to  reason  in  this  manner  !  "  The 
beauty  and  beneficent  intention  of  creation,"  it  is 
said,  "  rebuke  the  dogma  of  a  personal  Evil  prin- 
ciple." But  we  ask,  Why  there  may  not  be  a 
Satan,  if  there  be  on  earth  tyrant  tormentors,  ma- 
lignant calumniators,  and  avowed  enemies  of  peace, 
order,  and  purity  ?  "  Beneath  the  fair  vault  of 
heaven,"  you  say,  "  there  can  be  no  agent  of  mi- 


96  ON    SPIRITUAL 

sery  ;  or  no  sphere  for  his  malice,  if  there  were 
one. — Look  between  decks  of  a  slave  ship,  and 
tell  us  why  there  may  not  be  a  Satan.  Alas  !  the 
darkest  surmises  of  superstition  have  been  only 
exaggerations  of  the  things  of  earth  !  And  the  hor- 
rid descriptions  which  deform  the  Koran  are  but 
wild  dreams  of  things  which  have  been  actually 
transacted  [on  earth !  When  we  go  about  ingeni- 
ously to  trace  the  origin  of  the  belief  in  an  infernal 
world,  to  the  horrors  of  eastern  despotism,  what  do 
we  but  exhibit  incontestable  proofs  that,  notwith- 
standing the  goodness  of  God,  such  a  world  maybe  ? 

Under  the  very  same  conditions  stands  the  doc- 
trine of  future  punishment.  The  Saviour  of  the 
world  vouches  for  the  truth  of  this — the  instinctive 
belief  of  the  human  race.  He  speaks  of  the  "  wrath 
to  come,"  and  solemnly  warns  us  to  escape  from  it. 
But  is  he  therefore  our  enemy  ?  or  is  Christianity 
to  be  blamed  on  this  account  ?  First  let  HS  be  sure 
that  the  alarm  it  gives  is  groundless  ;  for  if  it  be 
well  founded,  assuredly  the  Gospel  is  "  good  news." 
That  sort  of  infatuation  which  impels  us  to  vent 
upon  an  innocent  messenger,  our  vexation  on  hear- 
ing ill  tidings,  attaches  to  us  when  we  resent  the 
Gospel,  because  it  involves  the  belief  of  the  terrible 
retributions  of  the  future  world. 

In  the  present  instance,  after  having  fully  admit- 
ted that  the  inspired  writings  allow  us  no  liberty  to 


CHRISTIANITY.  97 

call  in  question  the  articles  we  have  mentioned,  we 
protest  against  the  common  error  of  loading  reve- 
lation with  the  weight  of  them.  If  they  be  denied, 
the  Gospel  itself  has  no  reason  ;  and  wherever  they 
have  been  denied,  it  has  thrown  off  its  characteris- 
tics of  intensity  and  seriousness. 

Moreover,  certain  of  the  most  sacred  truths  of 
religion  must  not  be  claimed  as  peculiar  to  Spiritual 
Christianity,  inasmuch  as  they  have  long  consisted 
with  the  most  serious  corruptions  of  its  purity. 
Thus  must  we  say  that  orthodoxy,  although  essen- 
tial to  Christianity,  is  yet,  of  itself,  not  Christianity. 
A  fact  indeed  it  is  that  churches  which  have  de- 
clined from  orthodoxy,  or  that  have  only  wavered 
concerning  it,  have,  without  an  exception,  lost  the 
warmth  of  religious  feeling,  as  well  as  the  purity- 
of  religious  practice  ;  and  after  making  a  few  de- 
scents, have  walked  forth  upon  the  broad  level  of 
deism,  compromising  almost  the  very  name  of 
Christian. 

If  therefore  it  were  asked,  "  Is  a  trinitarian  faith 
of  much  importance  to  practical  piety  ?"  we  should 
be  content  to  say — trace  the  history,  either  of  indi- 
viduals, or  of  churches,  that  have  renounced  it,  and 
you  will  find  an  answer.  A  trinitarian  faith,  clear 
of  every  evasion,  and  excluding,  even  the  disposition 
9 


98  ON      SPIRITUAL 

to  look  for  evasions,  we  hold  to  be  the  basis  of  all 
Christian  piety. 

But  now,  with  a  due  ingenuousness,  let  us  look 
to  the  other  side  of  this  argument.  Orthodoxy 
alone,  is  not,  we  say,  Christianity,  for  it  has  con- 
sisted with  the  widest  departures  from  its  purport. 
More  than  a  little  constancy  of  faith  and  strength 
of  mind  are  demanded  in  travelling  over  the  road 
of  the  trinitarian  controversy,  from  the  early  years 
of  the  third  century,  onward,  toward  modern  times  ; 
and  if  our  belief  have  not  previously  been  firmly 
grounded  upon  the  proper  biblical  evidence,  it  is 
probable  that  the  perusal  of  this  history  will  breed 
doubt,  disgust,  suspicion  ;  and  will  end  in  a  hetero- 
dox conclusion. 

The  Greek  mind,  which  had  relinquished  none 
of  the  faults  of  a  better  age,  and  which  retained 
few  of  its  admirable  qualities,  and  which  had  been 
schooled  in  nugatory  disputation  by  a  degenerate 
philosophy,  a  sophistical  logic,  and  a  spurious 
rhetoric,  found  its  field  in  the  trinitarian  argument. 
Ponderous  tomes  have  brought  this  argument  down 
to  our  times  ;  but  how  much  of  the  warm  apostolic 
feeling  do  these  books  present  to  our  view  ?  Some- 
thing indeed ;  but  not  more  in  proportion  to  the 
mass,  than  there  are  grains  of  the  precious  metal 
to  be  gathered  from  a  mud  bank,  in  the  offing  of  a 
gold  coast. 


CHRISTIANITY.  99 

Orthodoxy,  very  early  severed  from  evangelical 
truth,  showed  at  once  what  was  its  quality,  when 
so  divorced.  Some  time  before  the  breaking  out 
of  the  trinitarian  controversy,  a  discipline  and  course 
of  life  directly  contravening  the  first  principle  of 
the  Gospel  had  received  the  almost  unanimous 
homage  of  the  church,  throughout  the  world,  and 
was  applauded,  on  all  sides,  as  the  highest  style  of 
Christian  piety. 

What  moral  influence  was  orthodoxy  likely  to 
exert,  when  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  those  who  had 
overlooked,  or  who  virtually  denied,  the  truths 
which  alone  can  bring  it  home  to  the  heart  ?  The 
Saviour,  forgotten  as  "  the  end  of  the  law,  for  right- 
eousness, to  every  one  that  believeth,"  was  soon  for- 
gotten also  as  the  "  one  Mediator  between  God  and 
man."  Most  instructive  is  the  fact,  that,  at  the  very 
moment  when  trinitarian  doctrine  was  the  most 
hotly  contended  for,  and  punctiliously  professed, 
mediators  many,  and  gods  many,  and  goddesses 
many,  were  receiving,  under  the  auspices,  and  by 
the  encouragement  of  the  great  preachers,  theolo- 
gians, and  bishops  of  the  time,  the  fervent  devotions 
of  the  multitude  !  It  was  to  these  potent  interces- 
sors that  sincere  petitions  were  addressed ;  while 
to  the  Trinity  was  offered — a  doxology  !  When- 
ever men  were  in  real  trouble,  and  when  they 
needed  and  heartily  desired  help  from  above,  they 


100  ONSPIRITUAL 

sought  it,  where  they  believed  they  should  the 
soonest  find  it — at  the  shrines  of  the  martyrs,  or  of 
the  Virgin.  No  fact  of  church  history  carries  a 
heavier  lesson  than  that  which  we  gather  when, 
listening  to  the  perorations  of  the  great  preachers 
of  the  age  of  orthodoxy,  we  hear  them,  first  in- 
voking, with  animation,  and  high  sounding  phrases, 
a  saint  in  the  heavens,  while  the  finger  pointed  to 
his  glittering  shrine  :  and  then  ascribing  "  honour 
and  glory"  to  the  Trinity  !* 

Orthodoxy  by  itself,  does  not  touch  the  con- 
science, does  not  quicken  the  affections  ;  it  does 
not  connect  itself,  in  any  manner,  with  the  moral 
faculties.  It  is  not  a  religion,  but  a  theory  ;  and 
inasmuch  as  it  awakens  no  spiritual  feelings,  it 
consists  easily  with  either  the  grossest  absurdities, 
or  with  the  grossest  corruptions. 

Orthodoxy,  powerless  when  alone,  becomes  even 
efficient  for  evil  at  the  moment  when  it  combines 
itself  with  asceticism,  superstition,  and  hierarchical 

*  The  facts  here  adverted  to— important  in  themselves,  are 
gathering  importance  daily,  inasmuch  as  an  avowal — at  length 
unambiguous,  has  been  made,  of  the  long  disguised  intention 
to  restore  the  very  system  of  which  these  impieties  were  a 
principal  element.  Some  few  samples  of  the  "  catholic" 
piety  of  the  fourth  century  will  be  furnished  in  a  supple- 
mentary note. 


CHRISTIANITY.  101 

ambition.  What  is  the  religious  history  of  Europe, 
through  a  long  course  of  time,  but  a  narrative  of  the 
horrors  and  the  immoralities  that  have  sprung  from 
this  very  combination  ? 

Heterodoxy,  which  has  long  been  the  temptation 
of  the  continental  protestant  churches,  has  at  length 
wrought  their  ruin  ; — or,  at  the  best,  has  left  them 
in  an  expiring  condition.  But  in  perfect  equity  must 
it  not  be  acknowledged  that  orthodoxy,  severed 
from  evangelic  truth,  has  been  the  temptation  of 
England  ;  and  that,  at  this  moment,  by  reviving  its 
ancient  connexion  with  superstition,  it  gives  just 
alarm  to  the  true  sons  of  the  reformers  ?  Those 
great  men — the  lights  of  the  sixteenth  century — 
whom  we  do  not  worship,  but  whose  steps  we 
would  follow,  were  orthodox,  and  yet  they  were  no 
monks  :  they  were  Trinitarians,  but  they  were  not 
idolaters  :  they  had  studied  the  Fathers  ;  but  they 
bowed  to  the  Scriptures  ;  and  from  the  Scriptures 
they  recovered  evangelic  truth — inestimable  trea- 
sure, which  so  many  around  us  are  now  ready  to 
exchange  for  the  "vainly-invented"  superstitions 
of  antiquity ! 

Furthermore,  in  defining  the  principles  assumed 
to  be  peculiar  to  Spiritual  Christianity,  we  must  not 
name  some  points  of  belief  which  have  been  differ- 
ently understood,  or  might  we  say,  differently  misun- 
9* 


102  ON    SPIRITUAL 

derstood,  among  the  cordial  adherents  of  evangelic 
piety.  There  are  articles  which,  though  "full  of 
sweet,  pleasant,  and  unspeakable  comfort  to  godly 
persons,"  do  not  appear  to  all  to  be  clear  from 
extreme  difficulties. 

We  name  then,  as  peculiar  to  Spiritual  Chris- 
tianity, those  truths  which  the  human  mind  had 
never  conceived  of  until  the  Gospel,  and  its  pre- 
cursive  types  had  appeared — those  truths  which, 
although  they  lie  broadly  on  the  surface  of  the 
apostolic  writings,  so  many  learned  interpreters  have 
endeavoured,  by  all  means,  and  with  indefatigable 
industry,  to  dispel  from  the  Christian  system,  those 
truths  which  the  pride  of  the  heart  the  most  highly 
resents,  but  in  which  the  contrite  spirit  finds  its 
peace. 

First  in  systematic  order,  as  well  as  in  magnitude, 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Propitiation,  effected  by  the 
Son  of  God — so  held  clear  of  admixture  and  eva- 
sions, as  to  sustain,  in  its  bright  integrity,  the  con- 
sequent doctrine  of  THE  FULL  AND  ABSOLUTE 

RESTORATION    OF    GUILTY    MAN  TO    THE     FAVOUR  OF 

GOD,  on  his  acceptance  of  this  method  of  mercy ; 
— or,  as  it  is  technically  phrased,  "  JUSTIFICATION 
THROUGH  FAITH."  A  doctrine  this,  which,  in  a 
peculiar  manner,  refuses  to  be  tampered  with,  or 
compromised ;  and  which  will  hold  its  own  place, 
or  none.  It  challenges  for  itself,  not  only  a  broad 


CHRISTIANITY.  103 

basis,  on  which  it  may  rest  alone ;  but  a  broad 
border,  upon  which  nothing  that  is  human  may 
trespass. 

This  doctrine  when  unadulterate,  not  only  ani- 
mates orthodoxy,  but  shows  us  why  it  was  necessary 
to  lay  open  the  mystery  of  the  Divine  nature,  so 
far  as  it  is  laid  open  in  scriptural  trinitarian  doctrine ; 
for  we  could  not  have  learned  the  method  of  salva- 
tion, without  first  learning,  that  He  who  "  bore  our 
sins,"  was  indeed  able  to  bear  them,  and  was,  in 
himself,  "  mighty  to  save." 

Whatever  belongs  to  the  Divine  Nature  must  be 
incomprehensible  by  the  human  mind  ;  and  there- 
fore— the  incarnation  is  incomprehensible ;  and 
therefore — the  atonement  involves  a  mystery  incom- 
prehensible ;  but  not  so  the  consequent  doctrine  of 
justification  through  faith.  This  doctrine  turns  upon 
the  well  understood  relations  of  a  forensic  substitu- 
tion ;  and  as  to  transactions  of  this  order,  they  are 
among  the  clearest  of  any  with  which  we  have  to 
do,  as  the  subjects  of  law  and  government. 

Yet  simple  as  it  is  in  itself,  the  doctrine  of  justifi- 
cation through  the  intervention  of  our  legal  sponsor, 
does,  as  we  fully  admit,  rest  upon  a  supposition  so 
stupendous,  that  we  are  fain  to  recoil,  and  to  ask, 
"  can  such  things  be  true  ?" 

—  Is  it  true  indeed,  that  the  Eternal  Word  was 
"  made  flesh ; "  and  that,  as  man,  he  put  himself 


104  ON     SPIRITUAL 

in  the  place  of  the  guilty  ?  Look  abroad  upon  the 
wide  field  of  nature,  and  then  come  home,  and 
calmly  consider  what  it  is  you  imply  when  you 
speak  of  being  "justified  through  faith  in  Christ ;  " 
of  whom  you  say,  that  he  is  equal  with  God,  and 
that  he  "  upholdeth  all  things  by  the  word  of  his 
power  ? " 

It  is,  we  grant  it,  a  spectacle  of  wonders  which 
the  Scriptures  open  before  us  on  this  'ground  ;  but 
are  these  wonders  of  such  a  kind  that  we  may 
readily  attribute  them  to  the  inventive  faculty  of 
minds  like  our  own  ?  Let  us  however  trace  with 
care  the  steps  by  which  we  have  come  into  the 
prospect  of  mysteries  such  as  these  : — just  as  a 
traveller  looks  anew  to  his  footing  when,  having 
reached  a  mountain  summit,  through  mists,  which 
the  morning  breeze  suddenly  rolls  away,  he  beholds 
with  amazement  kingdoms  outstretched  beneath 
his  feet. 

In  bringing  the  mind  distinctly  to  contemplate  the 
Scriptural  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  effected  by  the 
death  of  Christ,  we  feel  ourselves  to  have  reached 
an  elevation  higher  than  the  highest  of  the  specula- 
tions of  man. — We  are  compelled  to  confess  our- 
selves in  the  presence  of  things  divine  and  eternal. 

What  then  are  the  steps  by  which  we  reach  this 
height  ? — Let  us  retrace  them  ;  and  they  are  few. 
The  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  unimpeach- 


CHRISTIANITY.  105 

able  as  to  their  genuineness  and  authenticity  ;  and 
we  are  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  grace,  ma- 
jesty, and  wisdom  of  the  Saviour  of  whom  they 
speak.  He  claims  the  right  to  teach  us  sacred 
truth  ;  and  to  teach  it  to  mankind  to  the  end  of  the 
world.  The  apostolic  writings  are  warranted  as 
the  vehicles  of  the  Saviour's  instructions ;  and 
unless  we  can  rely  upon  these,  in  their  obvious 
meaning,  and  after  we  have  used  all  diligence  to 
ascertain  it,  this  Teacher  can  be  no  teacher  to  us  ; 
nor  this  Saviour  our  Saviour.  How  should  he  be 
so,  if  we  may  not  thus  confide  in  the  intelligible 
import  of  a  known  language  ;  for  on  the  contrary 
supposition,  we  have  no  means  remaining  within 
our  reach,  of  knowing  certainly  the  terms  of  the 
salvation  herein  offered  to  us.  We  do  then  rely 
with  ingenuous  confidence  upon  the  grammatical 
sense  of  the  apostolic  writings.  We  follow  whith- 
ersoever these  messengers  of  Heaven  may  lead  us. 
Whatever  they  plainly  affirm,  we  must  either  accept 
as  true,  or  must  disclaim  their  authority. 

But  Christ's  ministers  teach  us,  if  language  can 
convey  such  a  meaning,  that  he  was  indeed  "  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh" — "  God  over  all,  blessed  for 
ever." 

If  we  draw  back  from  such  a  doctrine,  as  in  dis- 
may, let  us  look  to  the  alternative.  The  book 
which  compels  us  to  believe  that  it  is  from  God, 


106  ON      SPIRITUAL 

and  the  only  book  in  the  world  that  embodies  a  per- 
fect morality,  and  the  only  book  that  contains  an 
authentic  hope  of  immortality  for  man,  is  then,  if  we 
cannot  admit  this  doctrine,  so  ambiguous,  nay,  so 
delusive  in  its  language,  that  it  can  warrant  no 
certain  conclusions  on  any  subject.  Granted  that 
the  incarnation  and  the  atonement  are  stupendous 
mysteries,  which  surpass  our  reason,  and  try  our 
faith  :  but  the  alternative  supposition — -that  the 
book  of  God  may  not  be'trusted,  poisons  faith,  and 
breaks  reason  on  the  wheel. 

Jesus  then  is  divine  in  the  highest  sense  ;  but 
why  divine  ?  Wherefore  has  the  "  Son  left  the 
bosom  of  the  Father  ?"  The  means  are  infinite  :  is 
the  end  such  ?  For  what  specific  purpose  was  it  that 
he  who  "is  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory," 
"  abhorred  not  the  virgin's  womb,"  and  walked  the 
earth,  and  conversed  as  man,  with  man  ?  Was  it 
only  to  teach  us  virtue  ?  or  was  it  only  to  embody 
it  ?  But  then  where  is  the  proportion  of  the  means 
to  the  end  ? 

But  we  say,  it  was  to  suffer,  "  the  just  for  the 
unjust ;"  and  those  who  hold  Christian  truth  thus 
far,  undoubtedly  hold  that  which  is  of  saving  effica- 
cy :  but  we  must  advance  yet  further,  if  we  would 
exclude  the  most  serious  errors.  The  doctrine  of 
the  atonement,  dimly  perceived,  or  at  least  not  held 
in  connexion  with  its  forensic  consequence,  became 


CHRISTIANITY.  107 

little  more,  to  the  ancient  church,  than  a  spectacle 
of  wonder  and  pathos,  to  be  exhibited  at  certain 
seasons  of  the  year  ;  and  in  its  turn  with  the  com- 
memoration of  other  martyrdoms  ! 

The  Church  history  of  fourteen  centuries  affords 
convincing  proof  that  something  more  than  the  doc- 
trine of  the  propitiatory  work  of  Christ,  retained  in  a 
creed,  is  necessary  to  give  vitality  to  the  Christian 
system.  Very  early  the  wonders  of  Calvary,  in 
turn  with  the  eulogies  of  the  saints,  were  the  themes 
of  the  cold,  turgid  rhapsodies  of  a  false  oratory. 

Almost  every  practice,  rite  and  principle  of  the 
ancient  church  had  the  same  tendency  to  remove, 
farther  and  further  from  its  place,  although  it  was 
never  denied,  the  scriptural  doctrine  of  the  atone- 
ment. The  Apostle  had  said,  "  there  is  now  no 
condemnation  to  them  that  believe  ;"  and  that  the 
sacrifice  for  sins,  "  once  offered,"  effected  an  abso- 
lute expiation.  But  it  was  not  so  in  the  sense  of 
antiquity.  The  expiation  did  not  expiate  ;  for  the 
ascetics  discovered  that  they  had  still  the  whole 
work  of  satisfaction  to  do  for  themselves.  The 
expiation  did  not  expiate  ;  for  the  Church  was  con- 
stantly occupied  in  praying  for  the  repose  of  souls, 
affirmed  by  itself  to  have  received  the  utmost  bene- 
fit which  could  be  received  from  a  sincere  faith  in 
Christ.  The  sacrifice  once  offered  for  the  sins  of 
the  world  did  not,  any  more  than  those  offered 


108  ON     SPIRITUAL 

under  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  "  make  the  comers 
thereunto  perfect ;"  for  it  needed  to  be  reiterated  in 
the  sacrifice  of  the  mass .  It  was  not  true  in  the 
opinion  of  the  church,  that  we  are  "  saved  from 
wrath"  through  Christ,  for  it  taught  even  the  faith- 
ful to  look  forward  to  a  terrible  futurity  of  purgato- 
rial anguish. 

No  fact  connected  with  the  history  of  opinions,  is, 
we  think,  more  conspicuously  certain  than  this,  that 
the  ancient  church,  while  holding  trinitarian  doc- 
trine, and  while  professing  to  believe  in  the  atone- 
ment, had,  in  some  inexplicable  manner,  compro- 
mised, or  lost  sight  of,  the  principal  element  of 
Apostolic  Christianity. 

Compare  for  a  moment,  the  broad  aspect  of  the 
Mosaic  dispensation,  and  that  of  the  ancient  church 
system.  The  Psalms,  and  the  other  devotional 
portions  of  the  Old  Testament,  make  it  evident  that, 
although  the  ritual  economy  did  not  fully  open  the 
scheme  of  divine  mercy  toward  man,  it  did  yet 
avail  to  convey  a  calm  and  affectionate  comfort  to 
the  heart  of  the  contrite  worshipper.  As  a  proof 
that  it  did  so,  we  may  appeal,  not  merely  to  the 
pure  spirituality  which  breathes  through  the  Psalms, 
and  the  prophetic  writings  ;  but  also  to  the  signifi- 
cant fact  that  it  was  not  until  sometime  after  the 
close  of  the  prophetic  dispensation,  that  the  Jewish 
people  went  off  into  that  fanaticism  which  exhibits 


CHRISTIANITY.  109 

the  uneasiness  of  a  guilty  conscience,  wholly  igno- 
rant of  the  Divine  mercy. 

Most  remarkable  is  the  contrast  which  presents 
itself  in  comparing,  on  this  ground,  the  ancient 
Jewish,  and  the  ancient  Christian  church.  The 
pious  members  of  the  former  did  enjoy  the  stillness 
and  the  illumination  of  an  early  morning  time  ;  and 
they  looked  with  the  comfort  of  hope  toward  the 
spreading  brightness  of  the  sunward  sky.  But 
after  that  the  one  sacrifice  had  superseded  its 
types,  infatuated  men,  with  the  Gospel  open  in  their 
hands,  and  although  they  had  eyes  to  see,  saw  not 
its  glory ;  but  deprived  themselves  of  all  its  bless- 
ings. The  Jewish  church  had  lived  upon  hope ; 
the  Christian  church  seemed  to  have  inherited  de- 
spair. The  most  ferocious,  as  well  as  absurd  meth- 
ods of  placating  the  wrath  of  Heaven,  joined  with 
the  doctrine  that  sin  after  Baptism,  that  is  to  say, 
the  vast  majority  of  all  sins,  could  be  entitled  only 
to  an  ambiguous  forgiveness,  denied  peace  to  the 
consciences,  as  well  of  the  few,  as  of  the  many. 

A  forensic  act,  authoritatively  announced,  and  in 
consequence  of  which  the  condemned  stands  exempt 
from  the  demands  of  Law,  whether  it  rest  on  the 
ground  of  his  afterwards  established  innocence,  or 
of  any  satisfaction  he  may  have  been  able  to  pro- 
pound, must  be  in  its  nature  absolute.  It  is  not  an 
10 


110  ON     SPIRITUAL 

undefined  indulgence  ;  it  is  not  a  weak  connivance  ; 
it  is  not  a  timid  compromise  ;  it  is  not  an  evasion 
which  must  be  held  to  condemn,  if  not  the  Law,  its 
administrators.  After  such  a  transaction  has  been 
recorded  in  court,  and  proclaimed  aloud,  no  conduct, 
on  the  part  of  him  who  has  been  so  discharged, 
could  be  more  offensive  than  that  of  an  endeavour 
to  go  over  the  ground  again  ;  as  if  to  effect  the  same 
result,  on  conditions  less  humiliating  to  himself. 

In  the  justification  of  man  through  the  mediation 
of  Christ,  man  individually,  as  guilty,  and  his  Divine 
Sponsor,  personally  competent  to  take  upon  himself 
such  apart,  stand  forward  in  the  Court  of  Heaven  ; 
there  to  be  severally  dealt  with  as  the  honour  of 
Law  shall  demand  ;  and  if  the  representative  of  the 
guilty  be  indeed  thus  qualified,  in  the  eye  of  the 
law,  and  if  the  guilty,  on  his  part,  freely  accept  this 
mode  of  satisfaction,  then,  when  the  one  recedes 
from  the  position  of  danger,  and  the  other  steps  into 
it,  Justice  having  already  admitted  both  the  compe- 
tency of  the  substitute,  and  the  sufficiency  of  the 
substitution,  is  itself  silent. 

Such  a  transaction  does  indeed  originate  in 
grace  or  favour ;  but  yet  if  it  satisfy  law,  it  ca  nbe 
open  to  no  species  of  after  interference.  Now  in 
the  method  of  justification  through  faith,  God  him- 
self solemnly  proclaims  that  the  rectitude  of  his 
government  is  not  violated  ;  nor  the  sanctity  of  his 


CHRI  STI ANI  T  Y.  Ill 

law  compromised.  It  is  He  who  declares  that,  in 
this  method,  he  "  may  be  just  while  justifying  the 
ungodly."  After  such  a  proclamation  from  Heaven 
has  been  made,  "  who  is  he  that  condemneth?  It 
is  God  that  justifieth  !" 

A  sacred  doctrine  this  ! — not  to  be  tampered 
with  ;  and  most  honoured,  assuredly,  when  admit- 
ted with  a  simple-hearted  and  joyful  gratitude  !  If 
it  be  asked,  "  Is  it  a  truth  ?"  in  reply,  besides 
citing  the  apostolic  authorities,  which  are  most  ex- 
plicit, we  might  well  ask — Whence  such  a  doctrine 
might  proceed,  if  not  from  God?  Which  of  the 
creations  of  the  human  mind  does  it  resemble? 
Whether  we  regard  that  aspect  of  it  in  which  it  is 
thoroughly  intelligible  ;  or  that  in  which  it  presents 
an  inscrutable  mystery,  it  stands  equally  remote 
from  the  customary  style  of  human  speculations ; 
beside  that  it  contravenes  the  pride  and  prejudices 
of  the  heart.  Clear  and  bright  as  noon  is  this 
Truth  :  vast  and  deep  as  infinity. 

Nevertheless,  we  suppose  an  objector  to  declare 
that  he  can  by  no  means  bring  himself  to  embrace 
a  doctrine  involving  what  this  involves.  Let  him 
however  well  consider  on  what  part  of  the  great 
scheme  of  man's  salvation,  as  taught  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  real  difficulty  presses. — We  believe  that, 
with  most  objectors,  it  is  placed  too  far  forward, — 
Fully  do  we  grant  it  to  be  indeed  a  mystery  that 


112  ON     SPIRITUAL 

guilty  man  should  be  delivered  from  the  hands  of 
justice  by  the  personal  intervention  of  his  Sove- 
reign ;  and  yet,  i&  there  not  a  previous  ground  of 
amazement  in  the  mere  fact,  admitted  as  it  is  by  all 
who  do  not  deny  man's  individual  responsibility, 
that  he — feeble  as  he  is,  and  frail,  should,  by  the 
Creator,  and  Sovereign  of  the  universe,  be  held 
personally  answerable  for  the  acts  of  so  brief  a 
course  ?  Is  not  this  the  mystery  ?  and  after  we  have 
mastered  this,  or  at  least  have  found  that,  amazing 
as  it  is,  we  can  by  no  means  evade  it ;  there  will 
remain  no  sufficient  pretext  for  rejecting,  as  incredi- 
ble, the  wonders  which  attach  to  the  mode  of  his 
deliverance.  Is  it  true  that  the  children  of  earth  are 
severally  the  subjects  of  a  universal  government, 
and  that  they  shall  singly  be  called  to  account  at 
that  tribunal  ?  If  we  find  that  this  must  be  granted, 
the  way  is  open  also  for  the  mystery  of  mercy. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  once  we  have  delibe- 
rately rejected  the  scheme  of  salvation,  as  if  it  were 
incredible,  we  shall  find  it  only  so  much  the  more 
difficult  to  retain  our  hold  of  those  notions  of  virtue 
apart  from  which  man  can  neither  respect  himself, 
nor  his  fellows,  and  which  are  found  to  be  the  ne- 
cessary means  of  social  order,  and  of  personal  con- 
trol. 

If  these  notions  of  a  moral  system  (in  the  religious 
sense  of  the  terms)  be  once  abandoned,  then  there 


CHRISTIANITY.  113 

is  no  home  for  man — for  his  towering  conceptions 
of  happiness — for  his  boundless  hopes — for  his  pure 
affections — for  his  domestic  felicity — for  his  senti- 
ments of  virtue  and  honour ;  there  is  no  resting-place 
short  of  that  sensual  swamp,  whereon,  although  he 
may  take  his  level  with  the  brute  orders,  he  be- 
comes the  infamy  of  the  creation — the  enigma  of 
the  universe  ;  while  they  remain  as  they  were,  the 
instances  of  the  wisdom  and  benevolence  of  its  Au- 
thor. 

But  it  is  not  possible  to  abandon  the  religious  no- 
tion of  a  moral  system  ;  and  the  more  intimately  we 
follow  this  notion  out,  in  its  consequences,  the  more 
deeply  shall  we  feel  that  the  mystery  of  redemption 
is  anticipated  by  the  equal  wonders  of  that  relation- 
ship between  the  finite  and  the  Infinite  which  is 
involved  when  the  Supreme  Being  condescends  to 
challenge  men,  singly,  as  offenders,  and  as  answer- 
able, individually,  to  Himself. 

By  this  very  challenge,  man — not  as  a  race,  but 
as  an  individual,  is  assumed  to  be  a  morally  inde- 
pendent and  free  agent,  in  a  sense  which  lifts  him 
from  the  dust  to  a  level  of  reciprocity  with  God. — 
The  Eternal  Ruler  of  the  Universe  declares  himself 
a  party  in  a  controversy  in  which  each  individual  of 
the  human  race  separately  sustains  the  opposite  po- 
sition. No  liberty  is  granted  to  us  to  recede  from 
the  high,  but  ominous  dignity  of  thus  waging  battle 
10* 


114  ON     S  PIR  I  TUA  t 

with  the  Almighty :  this  is  a  nobility  we  are  born 
to  ;  and  if  in  no  other  manner,  yet  by  acts  of  wilful 
rebellion,  have  we  singly  accepted  the  distinction, 
and  stand  pledged  to  the  consequences. 

At  this  point  then  is  the  true  knot  of  the  difficulty 
which  is  supposed  to  attach  to  the  scheme  of  man's 
salvation  ;  and  those  who  are  staggered  by  its  vast- 
ness,  would  do  well  to  consider  how  far  they  will 
have  to  step  back,  toward  the  ground  of  the  most 
abject  animal  philosophy,  before  they  can  reach  a 
level  where  indeed  there  is  no  mystery  to  be  en- 
countered, because  there  is  no  Truth  to  be  grasped, 
And  yet,  even  if  that  level  were  reached — .-what  per 
plexities  still  surround  us  !  On  this  level — the  level 
of  atheistic  sensualism,  we  meet  a  being,  endowed 
(with  cursed)  intellectual  faculties,  which  enable  him 
to  bring  under  review,  and  to  measure,  and  weigh, 
a  moral  system,  and  to  calculate  the  consequences 
of  allowing  himself  to  be  reckoned  a  member  of 
such  a  system  ;  and  then,  finding  these  consequen- 
ces undesirable — to  cut  himself  off  from  it  (in  will 
at  least)  and  by  a  deliberate  suicidal  act,  to  die — to 
the  extent  of  half  his  nature  !  Are  we  in  search  of 
doctrines  which  may  be  scouted  as  incredible,  and 
which  reason  must  indignantly  resent  ?  Here  then  is 
such  a  doctrine — incredible,  not  because  mysterious, 
but  because  monstrous.  But  how  do  we  seem  to 
breathe  anew  when,  after  rejecting  enormities  such 


CHRISTIANITY.  115 

as  these,  we  accept  that  which — mystery  as  it  is,. 
we  yet  assent  to,  as  the  true  harmony  of  our  moral 
faculties ! 

Is  redemption  a  mystery  ?  but  let  us  well  consider 
the  invisible  wonders  that  are  more  than  dimly  in- 
dicated— by  the  vast  range,  the  depth,  intensity,  and 
force  of  the  feelings  proper  to  an  unschooled  con- 
science. If  opinions,  or  if  "  creeds,"  may  be  fac- 
titious, affections  are  not  so.  How  absurd  the  sup- 
position that  they  can  be  !  Take  then  a  sensible 
and  unsophisticated  mind  ;  and,  only  adapting  your 
style  to  its  style — to  its  acquired  medium  of  thought, 
may  you  not  at  once,  and  with  ease,  confer  with  it 
on  the  entire  range  of  ethical  questions  ?  will  it  not 
respond  and  consent,  while  you  reason  concerning 
"righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to  come" 
— while  you  speak  of  duty  to  man,  and  of  duty  to 
God,  and  while  you  bring  the  moral  sense  into  con- 
tact with  eternal  truth  and  virtue. 

The  moral  system  then,  and  the  religious  position 
of  man  as  related  to  God  is  a  fact,  not  a  theory.- — 
How  should  you  be  able  to  awaken,  in  a  sensitive, 
unsophisticated  bosom,  and  by  the  magic  of  a  single, 
word,  the  pungent  sense  of  shame  and  demerit ;  or 
the  glow  of  virtuous  sympathy,  if  the  Creator  had 
not,  by  his  own  endowments,  mi»de  man,  so  far,  a 
partaker  of  his  own  nature  ?  How  could  you  ex- 
cite, within  a  guileless,  and  yet  not  guiltless  bosom, 


116  ON     SPIRITUAL 

the  anguish  of  compunction  ;  how  heave  it  with  the- 
swellings  of  repentance,  if  the  waters  there  were 
not  deep  ?  They  are  deep  ;  and  the  agitations  of 
that  bosom — its  ebbings  and  flowings  of  love,  fear, 
resentment,  gratitude,  are  but  waves  breaking  upon 
the  shore  of  an  ocean ;  and  the  sounds  they  bring  to 
an  attentive  ear,  are  the  murmurs  of  the  deep — even 
the  vast  profound  of  the  moral  universe  ! 

We  boldly  say  then,  that  the  incontestable  facts 
of  the  relationship  between  man  individually,  and 
the  Eternal  God — a  relationship  at  once  of  commu- 
nity of  moral  nature,  and  of  forensic  dependence,  if 
duly  considered,  preclude  every  objection  to  which 
the  scheme  of  redemption  might  seem  liable,  as  if  it 
involved  more  than  can  be  granted  to  be  possible. 
Such  objections  are,  we  say,  precluded,  inasmuch 
as  they  are  anticipated  by  a  mystery  as  vast ;  and 
yet  not  to  be  denied. 

But  we  suppose  the  scriptural  doctrine  of  human 
salvation  effected  by  the  propitiatory  sufferings  of 
the  Son  of  God  to  be  assented  to.  By  what  rule 
then  do  we  discriminate  between  a  cold  orthodoxy 
in  respect  to  it  and  an  evangelic  faith  ?  Our  rule 
must  in  this  instance  be  an  experimental,  rather  than 
an  abstract  one  : — a  rule  not  so  much  polemical  as- 
practical. 

It  seems  reasonable  to  affirm,  that,  if  the  apostolic 


CHRISTIANITY.  117 

doctrine  of  justification  through  faith  be  clearly  held 
and  cordially  admitted,  it  will  occupy  the  foremost 
place  in  our  regards  ;  for  it  is  the  ground  of  all  our 
hopes,  and  the  relief  of  every  fear :  it  is  the  luminous 
centre  of  all  religious  truth.  It  is  the  sun  in  our 
heavens  :  it  is  the  source  of  light,  and  the  source  of 
vital  warmth.  We  do  not  therefore  hesitate  to  af- 
firm that  it  is  scripturally  held  only  by  those  who  do 
assign  to  it  this  prominent  position ;,  who  recur  to  it 
ever  and  again  with  delight,  who  never  feel  it  to  be 
an  exhausted  theme ;  who  build  their  own  hopes 
upon  it  firmly ;  who  invite  others  to  do  the  same 
with  confidence  ;  who  neither  distrust  it  in  theory, 
nor  dishonour  it  in  practice  ;  who  enounce  it  freely, 
and  boldly ;  and  of  whose  piety  it  is  the  spring  and 
reason. 

On  the  contrary,  we  cannot  but  impute  a  want  of 
apostolic  feeling,  as  well  as  a  dimness  of  religious 
perception,  to  those,  whatever  articles  may  be  ex- 
pressed in  their  creed,  who  speak  reluctantly  on  this 
great  theme,  or  ambiguously,  or  in  a  tone  of  evasion ; 
who  now  confess  it,  now  deny  it ;  and  whose  wri- 
tings or  discourses  on  the  subject,  baffle  the  endea- 
vours of  the  most  candid  to  ascertain  what  it  is  they 
really  believe. 

And  without  a  doubt,  or  a  moment's  hesitation, 
we  charge  those  with  disaffection  towards  this  first 
principle  of  Apostolic  Christianity,  who  would  fain 


118  ON     SPIRITUAL 

"reserve"  it  for  the  hearing  of  a  few,  and  would 
put  it,  and  keep  it,  under  their  bushel.  We  utterly 
disallow,  as  spurious,  the  delicacy  of  those  who  pro- 
fess that  they  cannot  desecrate  so  sacred  a  truth  as 
that  of  the  Atonement,  by  proclaiming  it  in  the  hear- 
ing of  the  thoughtless  multitude  ! 

The  great  question  now  at  issue  in  the  protestant 
church  is  not  whether  we  shall  restore  or  reject  cer- 
tain ancient  superstitions  ;  but  whether  we  are  to 
retain  that  GOSPEL — that  bright  apostolic  truth, 
which  those  superstitions  so  early  supplanted,  and 
with  which  it  never  has  for  a  moment  consisted,  and 
never  will  consist.  The  question  on  which,  at  this 
hour,  the  religious  destinies  of  England  turn,  is  not 
whether  we  shall  re-establish,  or  shall  repudiate, 
the  "  ROMISH/'  or  any  other  doctrine,  "  concerning 
purgatory,  pardons,  worshipping  and  adoration,  as 
well  of  Images,  as  of  relics,  and  also  invocation  of 
saints ; — those  fond  things  vainly  invented,  and 
grounded  upon  no  warranty  of  scripture  ;  but  rather 
repugnant  to  the  word  of  God." — THIS  is  NOT  THE 
QUESTION  ;  but  whether  "  the  righteousness  of  God 
through  faith,"  shall  stand  or  fall  among  us ;  and 
whether  the  Protestant  Church  itself,  shall  continue 
to  be  a  witness  for  God,  or  shall  be  rejected  as  apos- 
tate. If  the  distinctly  pronounced  doctrine  of  justi- 
fication through  faith  be  indeed  apostolic,  can  the 
bold  restorers  of  the  base  superstitions  of  the  fourth 


CHRISTIANITY.  119 

century  make  out  their  title  to  the  honours  of  Apos- 
tolicity  ?  How  can  we  grant  it  them  ;  or  how  re- 
fuse to  assign  it  to  those  who  having  clearly  read 
this  apostolic  truth  in  the  apostolic  writings,  cor- 
dially entertain  it,  and  convincingly  teach  it ;  and 
who  honour  it  in  their  lives,  and  whose  orders  are 
authenticated  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  "  giving  efficacy 
to  the  word  of  his  grace  ?" 


II. 


The  Second  great  truth,  peculiar,  as  we  believe, 
to  Spiritual  Christianity,  is  that  of  THE  SOVEREIGN 

AND  ABIDING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  HoLY  SPIRIT  IN 
RENOVATING  THE  SOUL,  IN  EACH  INSTANCE  IN  WHICH 
IT  IS  RENOVATED. 

This  doctrine  also,  like  the  preceding,  while  in 
one  view  it  is  an  inscrutable  mystery,  is  in  another 
an  intelligible  truth,  which  accords  at  once  with  our 
consciousness,  and  with  the  principles  of  sound  phi- 
losophy. The  contact  of  the  Infinite  Mind  with  the 
finite,  is  indeed  a  depth  ;  but  not  so  the  restoration 
of  the  moral  faculties,  as  a  matter  of  consciousness. 
The  gradual  predominance  of  better  impulses,  where 
the  worse  have  had  sway,  is  no  abyss  wherein  faith 
is  staggered  ;  nor  is  even  the  fact,  when  it  occurs, 
difficult  to  be  admitted,  of  a  sudden  breaking  down 


120  ONSPIRITUAL 

of  the  obduracy  of  the  will,  and  the  yielding  of  pride, 
and  the  subsiding  of  the  tempest  of  passion,  and  the 
dying  away  of  earthly  desires.  Whether  the  com- 
mencement of  such  a  change  be  conspicuously  mark- 
ed, or  not,  is  a  point  not  important.  What  is  there, 
we  ask,  either  in  the  fact  of  such  a  change,  or  in  its 
being  attributed  to  the  divine  agency,  which  reason 
ought  to  resent  ?  It  may  be  offensive  to  pride  ;  but 
we  boldly  say  it  is  not  so  to  reason  ;  and  it  can  be- 
come so  only  in  consequence  of  mystifications  which 
may  have  been  thereto  attached. 

It  may  be  well  here  to  state  the  distinction  be- 
tween mystery,  and  mystification  ;  or  between  the 
inscrutable  and  the  perplexed.  Those  things  may 
properly  be  called  mysterious  which,  either  in  their 
own  nature,  or  from  the  peculiarity  of  their  position 
toward  us,  transcend  the  powers  of  the  human  mind 
to  grasp  them  :  they  are  things  which  may  be  known 
of,  although  not  known.  The  divine  omnipotence 
is  a  mystery,  and  the  omnipresence  ;  and  so  is  the 
indisputable  truth,  that  the  Eternal  Being  is  related 
to  the  successive  points  of  duration — the  past,  the 
present,  and  the  future,  in  one  and  the  same  man- 
ner, whatever  that  may  be  ;  or,  to  use  a  mathema- 
tical analogy,  that  His  relation  to  time  is  measura- 
ble, at  all  points,  by  the  same  radius. 

But  mystification  is  factitious  mystery  ;  or,  it  is 
the  heaping  of  obscurity  upon  things  which,  in  their 


OF  TBE 


CHRISTIANITY.     >  121 

nature,  come  within  the  range  of  the  senses,  or  of 
the  consciousness,  or  of  the  reasoning  faculty.  To 
affirm  that  a  substance  familiar  to  four  of  the  senses 
has  suddenly  ceased  to  be  what  our  perceptions 
declare  it  yet  to  remain,  is  mystification,  not  mys- 
tery ;  nor  is  such  a  dogma  to  be  admitted  without 
inflicting  an  injury  upon  the  intellectual  and  moral 
faculties,  fatal,  in  an  equal  degree,  to  the  vitality  of 
faith,  and  to  the  integrity  of  reason. 

Those  early,  and  alas  !  not  extinct  superstitions 
which  stood  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  the  ope- 
rations of  the  Holy  Spirit  were  all  of  this  class. 
How  was  a  most  sacred  truth  transmuted  into  a 
frivolous  mystification,  when  men  were  taught  to 
look  for  the  renovating  influences  of  the  Holy  Spi- 
rit —  not  into  their  own  bosoms,  but  to  the  fingers 
of  the  priest  ! 

But  a  true  philosophy  will  not,  we  think,  con- 
demn as  irrational  the  following  affirmations  —  That 
a  great  —  an  entire  change  in  the  condition  and  habits 
of  the  moral  faculties  —  or  what  may  well  be  called 
a  renovation  of  them,  is  indispensable  to  our  re- 
covery of  true  virtue  and  felicity. 

—  That  men,  unassisted  from  above,  do  not  —  and 
we  may  add,  cannot,  effect  any  such  renovation  of 
their  moral  nature. 

—  That  this  happy  change,  wherever  it  takes 

11 


122  ON     SPIRITUAL 

place,  must  therefore  be  regarded  as  the  immediate 
effect  of  a  divine  influence  upon  the  mind. 

— That  this  change  coincides  with,  and  is  undis- 
tinguishable  from,  the  natural  and  ordinary  opera- 
tions of  the  mind : — that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  moral 
restoration  ;  neither  preternatural  in  the  sense  of 
the  enthusiast ;  nor  semi-miraculous  in  the  sense 
of  those  who  uphold  sacramental  and  ritual  mystifi- 
cations. 

Let  it  only  be  granted  that  true  felicity  must  con- 
sist in  the  predominance  of  holy  aifections,  or  of 
emotions  habitually  tending  toward  God  ;  and  let  it 
also  be  granted  that  no  such  affections  ordinarily 
belong  to  us,  nor  spontaneously  spring  up  or  grow 
with  our  growth  ;  then  must  we  not  acknowledge 
that  the  doctrine  so  clearly  affirmed  in  Scripture  of 
the  sovereign  renovating  influences  of  the  Holy  Spi- 
rit is  full  of  consolation  to  ourselves,  as  well  as 
strictly  accordant  with  the  best  conceptions  we  can 
form  of  the  goodness  of  God  ? 

What  then  is  conversion,  but  an  act  of  sovereign 
benevolence,  the  highest  in  its  intention,  and  the 
most  to  be  desired ;  and  which,  if  we  deal  faith- 
fully with  ourselves,  we  must  confess  to  be  needed 
not  less  absolutely  (if  we  are  to  be  happy)  than  is 
that  creative  power  to  which  we  owe,  every  moment, 
existence  itself? 

Now  we  are  fairly  entitled  to  claim  this  sacred 


CHRISTIANITY.  123 

truth— the  doctrine  of  the  sovereign,  renovating  in- 
fluence of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart,  and  the 
direct  source  and  cause  of  whatever  is  holy,  as  pe- 
culiar to  Spiritual  Christianity,  inasmuch  as,  like 
the  doctrine  of  justification  through  faith,  it  has 
(even  when  admitted  in  words)  been  constantly 
evaded,  or  supplanted,  on  the  one  side  by  rational- 
ists, and  on  the  other  by  the  promoters  of  supersti- 
tion, ancient  and  modem. 

Great  truths  are  always  lost  or  retained  together ; 
and  the  two  we  have  named  have  both  been  re-^ 
moved  from  the  view  of  the  mass  of  professed 
Christians,  through  a  long  course  of  time,  by  the 
substitution  of  symbols,  for  the  things  signified; 
and  by  the  practice  of  so  magnifying  the  rites  which 
typify  spiritual  realities,  as  to  throw  these  into  the 
shade. 

It  was  vain  to  suppose  that  the  mass  of  men 
would  continue  to  think  of  justification,  and  sancti- 
fication,  and  of  fitness  for  Heaven,  as  moral  and 
spiritual  realities,  when  they  were  assured,  in  the 
most  solemn  manner,  that  justification,  sanctifica- 
tion,  and  preparation  for  heaven,  all  passed  upon 
them,  unconsciously,  at  the  moment  when  they 
emerged  from  the  baptismal  pool ! 

But  at  this  point  we  are  warned  "  not  to  trifle 
with  things  sacred."  God  forbid  that  we  should 
do  so,  while  intending  to  plead  for  the  most  serious 


124  ON     SPIRITUAL 

truths  !  But  in  this  instance  we  repel  the  imputa- 
tion with  confidence,  and  affirm  that  it  is  not  we 
who  trifle  with  things  sacred. — What  things  then 
are  sacred  ?  The  rites  of  religion  are  so,  when  they 
hold  their  place  ;  but  they  become  mischievous  im- 
pieties, when  thrust  from  it.  To  rites  we  assign 
the  utmost  measure  of  importance  which,  so  far  as 
we  can  gather,  the  Apostles  teach  us  to  assign  to 
them  ;  and  we  dare  attach  no  more  ;  and  especially 
because  all  religious  history  exhibits  the  infatuated 
determination  of  the  human  mind  to  evade  realities, 
if  it  be  possible,  by  the  aid  of  ceremonies. 

But  we  say  it  is  not  the  adherents  of  evangelic 
doctrine  who  trifle  with  things  sacred.  Surely  the 
immortal  welfare  of  man  is  sacred  ;  and  yet  how  is 
this  sported  with  by  those  who  lull  the  conscience 
with  a  promise  of  salvation  that  may  be  managed 
by  proxy  !  Must  not  one  tremble  to  witness  the 
temerity  of  those  who,  with  little  or  no  inquiry  into 
the  condition  of  the  soul,  yet  venture  to  grant  pass- 
ports into  eternity  ? 

But  it  is  not  we  who  trifle  with  things  sacred,  or 
even  with  the  symbols  of  such  things  ;  and  we  ap- 
peal to  the  fact  that,  wherever  Spiritual  Christianity 
most  flourishes,  there  the  genuine  ordinances  of 
Christ  are  the  most  reverently  and  affectionately 
regarded. 

Yet  again — we  hold  nothing  on  earth  to  be  more 


CHRISTIANITY.  125 

sacred,  than  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  when 
clearly  manifested  in  the  temper  and  unblamable 
conduct  of  Christian  men.  If  there  be  any  instances 
in  which  the  reality  of  religion  comes  home  to  our 
convictions  with  irresistible  force,  it  is  when  we 
converse  with  those  who  themselves  hold  much  com- 
munion with  God.  As  the  Agent  is  most  sacred, 
so  is  his  work  ;  nor  can  there  be,  as  we  think,  an 
impiety  more  bold  than  that  of  those  who,  after  dis- 
tinctly contemplating  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
indubitably  displayed  in  the  walk  and  heavenly  dis- 
positions of  Christian  men,  dare  to  scout  it  as  alto 
gether  factitious,  because,  forsooth,  the  Christianity 
of  these  seeming  Christians  is  open  to  the  suspicion 
of  having  reached  them  through  some  indirect  chanr 
nel !  Thus  to  walk  forth  amid  the  most  precious 
of  the  works  of  God,  trampling  without  remorse 
upon  whatever  does  not  happen  to  lie  within  a  cer- 
tain ecclesiastical  border,  must  be  held  to  indicate 
— is  it  the  highest  moral  courage — or  not  rather,  a 
temper  most  irreligious,  as  well  as  arrogant. 

This  is  indeed  to  trifle  with  things  sacred  ;  and 
the  more  so  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  preva- 
lence of  so  intolerant  a  theory,  and  the  bold  avowal 
of  it  by  those  who  are  regarded  as  the  best  in- 
formed expounders  of  Christianity,  silently  but  ex- 
tensively operates  to  drive  cultured  and  ingenious 
minds  into  deism  or  atheism.  What  is  this 
11* 


126  ON     SPIRITUAL 

tianity,  say  such,  which,  while  professing  to  be  a 
religion,  not  of  bondage  and  forms,  but  of  truth 
and  love,  nevertheless  impels  its  adherents  to  vio- 
late all  charity  on  the  precarious  ground  of  an  ela- 
borate hypothesis  ! 

It  is  unavoidable  thus  pointedly  to  advert  to 
these  now  prevalent  errors,  because  in  the  practical 
interpretation  given  them,  they  are  absolutely  in- 
compatible with  an  adherence  to  Spiritual  Chris- 
tianity. Those  who  are  sternly  enjoined,  on  peril 
of  their  own  salvation,  not  to  recognize  as  Christian 
brethren  any  whose  ecclesiastical  legitimacy  may 
be  ambiguous,  are,  of  necessity,  driven  to  adopt 
such  a  notion  of  Christian  piety  as  may  consist 
with  the  application  of  this  ecclesiastical  rule.  In 
plain  words,  they  must  learn  to  scout  as  futile  or 
illusory,  whatever  is  moral  and  spiritual  in  religion  ; 
while  they  fix  their  attention  exclusively  upon  that 
which  is  formal  and  adjunctive.  Nor  will  those 
who  are  taught  to  judge  of  others  in  this  manner, 
be  slow  to  judge  of  themselves,  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple. "  If  we  be  Christians  ecclesiastically,  it  is 
enough  :  all  besides  is  illusion." 

And  such  in  fact  are  every  day  seen  to  be  the 
products  of  the  ecclesiastical  theory  which  we  de- 
nounce as,  at  this  time,  the  antagonist  of  Spiritual 
Christianity.  In  its  recent  revival  it  has  shed  a 
cold  arrogance  into  many  bosoms  that  once  glowed 


CHRISTIANITY.  127 

with  Christian  affection  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  it 
has  drawn  such  aside  (in  how  many  sad  instances  !) 
from  an  enlightened  regard  to  the  substantial  truths 
of  the  Gospel ;  while  they  give  all  their  eares  to 
frivolous  and  servile  observances. 

But  we  turn  to  a  happier  theme.  Happy  indeed, 
and  ennobling,  as  well  as  efficacious,  is  the  belief, 
that  He  -l  from  whom  all  holy  desires,  good  coun- 
sels, and  just  works  do  proceed,"  dwelleth  in  us,  as 
the  Author  of  spiritual  life  !  In  a  word,  that  the 
body  of  the  Christian  is  "  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  A  doctrine  this,  which,  if  scripturally 
held,  precludes  at  once  despondency  and  presump- 
tion. For  how  should  we  despond,  if  He  who 
"  creates  us  anew  in  Christ  Jesus,"  is  almighty  ? 
or  how  presume,  if  we  be  convinced  that,  were  the 
sacred  energy  withdrawn,  there  "  would  remain  in 
us  no  good  thing  ?" 


III. 


We  reach  then  our  ultimate  position,  and  THE 
THIRD  TRUTH,  peculiar,  as  we  assume,  to  Spiritual 
Christianity,  which  is  this — THAT  A  CORDIAL  RE- 
CEPTION OF  THE  TWO  ALREADY  NAMED,  JUSTIFICA- 
TION THROUGH  FAITH,  AND  THE  SOVEREIGN  INDWEL- 
LING INFLUENCES  OF  THE  HoLY  SPIRIT,  BRINGS 


128  ON     SPIRITUAL 

WITH  IT  A  SETTLED  AND  AFFECTIONATE  SENSE  Of 
SECURITY,  OR  PEACE  AND  JOY  IN  BELIEVING,  WHICH 
BECOMES  THE  SPRING  OF  HOLY  TEMPERS,  AND  VIR- 
TUOUS CONDUCT. 

Man,  created  for  happiness,  is  truly  virtuous  only 
so  far  as  he  is  happy.  Virtue  may  indeed  be  in  a 
suffering  condition  ;  but  never  is  it  actually  severed 
from  happiness  ;  for  it  is  never  cut  off  from  com- 
munion with  Him  who  is  the  fountain  of  joy. 

The  Apostle,  not  speaking  as  in  the  person  of 
one  who  had  been  admitted  into  the  third  heavens, 
and  had  witnessed  the  delights  of  paradise  ;  but 
when  addressing  Christians,  as  such,  appeals  to 
their  consciousness,  and  affirms  it  as  a  common 
truth,  that,  "  being  justified  by  faith,  they  have 
peace  with  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
and  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God."  "  The 
love  of  God,"  he  says,  "  is  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts,  by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  unto  us." 
He  enjoins  Ckristians,  as  their  characteristic  duty, 
to  "  rejoice  always  ;"  and  he  repeats  the  injunc- 
tion, as  if  to  remind  them  that  he  had  not  forgot- 
ten the  many  sources  of  uneasiness  which  might 
disturb  their  happiness,  and  which  yet,  in  his  view, 
should  not  destroy  it. 

If  the  Gospel  be  "glad  tidings,"  can  it  be 
strange  that  it  should  make  those  glad  who  heartily 
receive  it  ?  or  would  it  not  be  strange  if  it  did  not  ? 


CHRISTIANITY.  129 

Are  we  anxious  that  our  Christianity  should  be 
apostolic  ?  let  us  then  hear  "  the  chief  of  the 
Apostles,"  who  affirms  that  although  the  object  of 
faith  be  unseen,  yet  the  Christian,  loving  his  Sa- 
viour, and  believing  in  him,  "  rejoices  with  joy  un- 
speakable, and  full  of  glory."  If  to  ourselves  any 
such  state  of  mind,  or  such  affections,  or  any  such 
happiness,  be  not  known,  or  easily  conceived  of,  our 
faith  itself  should  be  examined  anew. 

"  Perfect  love,"  says  "  the  beloved  disciple  ;" 
that  is  to  say,  genuine  love,  "  caste th  out  fear  ;" 
and  with  it  "  torment." 

Through  the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel,  and  the 
hearty  reception  of  its  promises,  we  are  "  made 
partakers  of  the  Divine  nature."  But  God  is 
"  blessed  for  evermore."  Shall  we  then  be  drawing 
near  to  this  nature  continually,  without  a  happy 
consciousness  of  the  felicity  we  are  approaching  ? 
Shall  we  come  up  to  the  fountain  of  light,  and  re- 
ceive thence  no  illumination  ?  Those  do  not  ap- 
pear to  know  much  of  human  nature  who  are  jeal- 
ous of  happiness,  as  an  energy  of  virtue  ;  or  who 
suppose  that  virtue  on  earth  will  not  show  whence 
she  has  descended,  and  whither  she  is  going. 

Bring  this  principle  to  a  familiar  test.  The  king- 
dom of  heaven,  we  are  expressly  told,  is  a  pater- 
nal system  of  love  and  duty  ;  it  is  not  a  despotism. 
Now,  if  we  be  personally  familiar  with  the  mate- 


130  ON    SPI.RITUAL 

rials  whence  our  illustration  may  draw  its  analogy, 
let  us  look  within  the  circle  of  a  family,  and  there 
make  trial  of  the  opposite  methods  of  eliciting  the 
greatest  amount  of  effective  service,  and  of  dutiful 
performances ;  that  is  to  say  of  filial  virtue.  First, 
let  us  work  the  principle  of  bondage  and  fear.  Let 
dread  be  the  prime  impulse  of  every  domestic 
movement,  and  love  a  rare  and  precarious  blessing. 
Let  the  paternal  tenderness,  if  felt  at  all,  yet  be 
disguised  by  frowns,  and  let  it  express  itself,  in  all 
instances,  so  ambiguously  that  the  child  may  rea- 
sonably question  its  very  existence  ;  and  let  each 
son  and  daughter,  from  the  youngest  to  the  eldest, 
constantly  have  in  view,  as  a  chilling  caution,  the 
possible,  and  not  very  improbable  event,  of  a  final 
expulsion  from  the  paternal  home,  and  a  cutting  off 
from  all  share  in  the  inheritance.  Make  trial  of 
this  method,  until  you  have  converted  a  home  into 
a  prison,  and  children  into  abject  and  resentful 
slaves  ! 

But  assume  the  opposite  principle.  Do  not  ex- 
clude fear,  yet  govern  by  love.  Do  not  exclude 
suffering ;  but  never,  so  far  as  your  power  may 
avail,  never  let  suffering  exclude  happiness.  Let 
all  be  as  happy  at  home  as  the  conditions  of  the 
present  state  may  admit ;  .and  especially  let  all  feel 
that  happiness  is  secured  to  the  utmost  extent  to 
which  parental  vigilance  may  reach,  Whatever 


CHRISTIANITY.  131 

variety  of  disposition  a  family  so  treated  may  ex- 
hibit, can  there  be  a  doubt  that  it  will  immeasura- 
bly surpass  the  wretched  family,  in  filial  obedience, 
as  well  as  in  attachment  ? 

— If  we  then,  being  evil,  yet  know  how  to  rule 
our  households  by  the  means  of  love  and  joy,  how 
shall  not  our  heavenly  Father  much  rather  know 
how  to  do  the  same  ? 

But  where  then,  it  may  be  asked,  is  our  security 
against  presumption,  or  a  licentious  abuse  of  Chris* 
tian  privileges?  The  same  apostolic  word  that 
enjoins  us  to  rejoice,  conveys  the  necessary  precau- 
tion; and  to  take  up  the  precaution,  forgetting  the 
privilege  which  it  balances,  is  surely  as  great  an 
error  as  to  use  the  privilege,  and  to  forget  the  pre- 
caution. A  true  belief  of  the  Gospel  brings  with 
it  a  belief  also  of  the  fact  which  the  Gospel  attests. 
The  Christian  who  indeed  believes  himself  to  be 
saved,  will  recollect  from  what,  and  at  what  cost, 
and  to  Avhat  end. 

In  all  cases  in  which  the  human  mind  comes  habi- 
tually under  the  control  of  a  single  motive,  or  of 
motives  of  one  cast  and  tendency,  the  consequence 
is  some  species  of  extratagance,  bordering  often 
upon  insanity.  If  we  are  to  be  powerfully,  and  at 
the  same  time  healthfully  affected,  it  must  be  by 
motives  which  act  upon  us  in  the  way  of  counter- 
poise, or  of  mutual  correction  ;  and  the  product  of 


132  ON    SPIRITUAL 

which  is  a  joint  product  of  forces  moving  in  differ- 
ent, if  not  opposite  directions. 

The  motives  of  spiritual — evangelic  Christianity, 
are  of  this  composite  kind.  They  are  deep  contra- 
rieties, thoroughly  harmonized.  The  motives  and 
reasons  of  an  assured  peace  and  joy,  spring  directly 
from  considerations  the  most  profoundly  afflictive, 
or  humiliating.  It  is  in-  this  manner  that  moral 
force  is  generated;  and  yet  a  force  which  is  of 
healthful  and  happy  tendency. 

Is  it  true  that  the  Eternal  Word— was  "  made 
flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us,"  and  "died  for  our  sins," 
having  been  constituted  "  a  curse  for  us  ? "  Sin 
then  is  ruin — immortal  ruin  ;  and  our  condition,  if 
not  benefitted  by  that  sacrifice,  is  desperate.  But 
the  Saviour,  as  we  learn  from  his  own  lips,  although 
given  by  the  Father,  to  suffer  for  the  sins  of  the 
"  whole  world,"  yet  gave  himself  for  his  people, 
individually.  The  propitiation,  which  was  sufficient 
for  "  taking  away  the  sin  of  world,"  has  no  excess 
of  sufficiency  in  relation  to  the  sin  of  each  believer. 
On  this  ground  the  apostle  speaks  of  his  Lord  as 
"  having  loved  him,  and  given  himself  for  him" 

A  distinct  apprehension,  therefore,  of  truths  such 
as  these,  brings  home  to  the  heart  every  kind  of 
powerful  influence — every  imaginable  element  of 
awe,  compunction,  dread,  gratitude,  and  tender 
affection,  to  which  the  human  mind  may  be  open- 


CHRISTIANITY.  133 

And  just  in  proportion  as  sentiments  of  the  one 
kind  become  intense,  those  of  the  opposite  quality 
are  enhanced. 

Why  then  may  not  the  Christian  who  has  learned 
to  renounce  all  confidence  in  himself,  as  well  as  in 
beings  like  himself,  and  to  trust  alone  in  Him  who 
is  "  mighty  to  save " — why  may  he  not  freely 
rejoice,  nay,  exult  with  joy  unutterable,  in  the  pros- 
pect of  a  blissful  immortality  near  at  hand  ; — seeing 
that  the  very  condition  of  this  joy  is  an  always  pro- 
portionate depth  of  those  convictions  which  render 
him  serious  in  temper,  sedulous  in  duty,  and  keenly 
apprehensive  of  the  divine  displeasure  ? 

It  is  on  this  very  ground  that  we  reject,  as  equally 
unchristian  and  unphilosophical,  those  sombre  in- 
terpretations of  Christianity  which  aim  to  secure 
seriousness  of  temper,  assiduity  in  good  works,  and 
a  necessary  dread  of  the  Divine  Majesty,  not  by  a 
balance  of  counteracting  motives  ;  but  by  giving  an 
almost  unlimited  operation  to  motives  of  one  order, 
and  these  of  the  kind  which,  when  uncorrected, 
crush  and  villify  the  moral  sentiments^ 

But  do  facts  bear  us  out  in  advancing  these  broad 
affirmations  ?  Let  us  select  our  genuine  instances, 
and  we  say  they  do.  Wherever  evangelic  doctrines 
are  indeed  entertained  with  an  unfeigned  belief  of 
their  reality,  there  the  product  is  not  a  lax,  presump- 
12 


134  ON     SPIRITUAL 

tuous  religionism ;  but  a  humble,  and  yet  happy 
piety,  and  a  consistent  virtue. 

But  need  we  say  that  a  loose  and  heartless  evan- 
gelic faith  may,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  be  of  far 
less  value  than  is  a  cordially  professed  superstition  ? 
The  vast  intrinsic  difference  between  genuine  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  austere  illusions  which  are  now 
supplanting  it,  is  much  obscured  by  this  circum- 
stance. The  grave  puritanism  (may  we  so  apply 
the  term  ?)  which  fascinates  so  many  ardent  minds, 
is,  although  it  dates  itself  from  a  remote  age,  in  this 
age  quite  new,  and  it  possesses  all  that  freshness 
and  animation  which  is  characteristic  of  a  recent 
religious  impulse  ;  or,  as  we  might  take  the  liberty 
to  call  it,  of  a  "  revival." 

Meantime  the  evangelic  principle  had,  at  the 
moment  of  the  birth  of  its  antagonist,  spent  itself ; 
or  had  become  in  a  degree  languid.  Its  interior 
force  had  been  dissipated  by  many  and  distracting 
occupations — commendable  in  themselves,  but  not 
easily  made  to  consist  with  profound  sentiments,  of 
any  kind.  At  the  same  time  an  almost  unprece- 
dented outburst  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  strife 
(must  we  not  say  of  hatred  ?)  had  produced  its 
inevitable — its  own  effects,  in  vitiating  the  religious 
sentiments  of  thousands,  in  all  communions. 

At  such  a  moment,  an  austere  pietism,  exempted 
from  every  admixture  of  vulgarity,  by  issuing  from 


CHRISTIANITY.  135 

halls  of  learning,  and  graced  with  the  undefined 
(and  alas  !  unexamined)  recommendations  of  anti* 
quity,  and  offering  to  young  and  ambitious  spirits  a 
course  of  glory— if  not  heavenly,  yet  not  earthly  in 
the  ordinary  sense — such  a  system,  thus  graced, 
comes  into  comparison  with  what  was  already 
exhausted — divided — distracted — with  what  had 
ceased  for  some  long  time,  to  be  under  the  guidance 
of  powerful  and  deeply  moved  minds. 

The  consequence  was  such  as  might  have  been 
supposed,  and  such  as  has  invariably  resulted  from 
similar  opposition  of  a  spent  energy,  with  an  energy 
renovated.  If  at  this  moment  there  be  reason  to 
anticipate  a  better  issue  of  this  collision  than  the 
usual  course  of  human  affairs  would  warrant  us  in 
expecting,  such  a  hope  must  be  drawn,  chiefly,  from 
the  now  obvious  fact,  that  the  restorers  of  "  Catho- 
lic "  superstitions  are,  like  many  other  leaders  of 
sects,  gifted  with  more  zeal  than  discretion. 

But  it  will  be  demanded— what  we  mean  by 
speaking  of  the  evangelic  principle  as  having  been 
lately,  or  as  still  being,  in  a  state  of  some  exhaustion 
or  collapse. 

Certainly  not,  that  evangelical  doctrine  has  ceased 
to  be  professed  with  explicitness,  or  taught  scrip- 
turally.  Certainly  not,  that  it  has  so  fallen  into 
decay  as  to  fail  of  producing  its  proper  and  happy 
effects  in  very  many  instances,  and  on  all  sides. 


136  ON     SPIRITUAL 

Certainly  not,  that  any  dogmatic  apostasy  from  the 
faith  has  taken  place  among  us. 

On  the  contrary,  it  should  be  acknowledged  with 
gratitude,  that  those  frightful  delusions  which  were 
the  fruit  of  an  absurd  system  of  metaphysics,  more 
absurdly  applied  to  the  simplicity  of  scripture,  and 
which  at  one  time  extensively  disgraced  evangelic 
communions,  have  nearly  disappeared  ;  and  that, 
partly  as  scattered  by  argument,  partly  as  extin- 
guished by  their  own  fumes,  these  false  fires  are 
almost  gone  out. 

What  then  do  we  complain  of?  not  of  False 
Doctrine  ; — but  rather  of  faintness  at  the  heart ;  as 
a  man  may  be  labouring  under  no  assignable  malady, 
whose  pulse  yet  is  feeble,  whose  appetite  is  way- 
ward, whose  waking  hours  are  listless,  and  whose 
repose  is  unquiet. 

If  it  be  our  part  to  speak  of  Spiritual  Christianity, 
we  are  bound  to  take  its  characteristics  as  we  find 
them  in  the  apostolic  writings  ; — not  as  they  may 
happen  to  be  presented  to  the  eye  in  the  momentary 
aspects  of  this  or  that  favoured  religious  body. 
What  does  impartiality  mean,  if  while  loudly  de- 
nouncing superstition,  or  any  other  antichristian 
error ;  we  allow  it,  by  our  discreet  silence  and  deli- 
cate reserve,  to  be  gathered,  that  the  body  from  the 
bosom  of  which  we  are  supposed  to  come  is,  in  our 
esteem,  no  sharer  in  those  ever  changing  alternations 


CHRISTIANITY.  137 

of  health  and  sickness  which  attach  to  whatever  is 
human ! 

Good  reason  is  there  to  hope  that,  after  the  now 
spreading  "  Catholic  "  puritanism  shall  have  freely 
exhibited  its  inner  qualities,  and  shall  have  honestly 
avowed  its  ulterior  purposes,  the  deep  movement 
of  which  it  has  been  the  immediate  cause,  may, 
through  the  divine  goodness,  take  a  happier  course, 
and  extensively  promote  genuine  piety. 

"It  is  not  in  man  that  walketh  to  direct  his 
steps  ;" — and  certainly  there  does  not  belong  to  the 
religious  commonwealth  any  such  individual  direc- 
tive wisdom  as  might  avail  for  the  conduct  of  the 
whole,  in  its  dubious  progress  toward  truth  and 
virtue.  This  overruling  power  it  is  not  in  man  to 
exercise.  Our  part  is,  while  humbly  we  implore 
this  divine  governance  of  the  church,  meekly  to 
yield  ourselves  to  it,  when  personally  challenged  to 
surrender  our  prejudices  or  to  forego  our  preferences, 
or  to  make  any  other  sacrifice,  which  may  give, 
evidence  of  our  <<  love  of  the  Truth," 


12* 


THE 

THIRD    LECTURE. 


ON    THE     ETHICAL    CHARACTERISTICS    OF 
SPIRITUAL    CHRISTIANITY 


THE  THIRD  LECTURE. 


WE  are  now  to  speak  of  the  ethical  characteris- 
tics of  Spiritual  Christianity  ;  or  of  the  influence 
which  the  great  truths  affirmed  to  constitute  evan- 
gelic doctrine  should,  and  do  exert  over  the  dispo- 
sitions and  conduct  of  those  who  cordially  embrace 
them. 

But  whence  are  we  to  derive  our  knowledge  of 
what  this  influence  actually  is  ?  Is  it  to  be  drawn 
inductively,  from  observation  of  facts  around  us  ; 
or  hypothetically,  from  a  consideration  of  what 
ought  to  be  the  moral  efficiency  of  such  truths  ? 

We  reply  that  we  should  adopt  either  method 
without  fear  as  to  the  result.  Nevertheless  the  first, 
namely,  that  of  an  appeal  to  the  actual  and  visible 
influence  of  the  great  principles  of  the  Gospel, 
wherever  they  have  been  allowed  fully  to  take 
effect,  could  not  be  rendered  satisfactory,  or  be  ex- 
empted from  plausible  objections,  within  any  such 
limits  as  are  prescribed  to  us  in  the  present  instance 


142  ON    SPIRITUAL 

Scarcely  any  subject,  connected  with  religion, 
can  be  named,  of  wider  compass  than  would  be  a 
thoroughly  impartial  and  comprehensive  inquiry  as 
to  the  actual  efficiency  of  evangelic  principles,  as 
they  have  been  maintained  in  this,  and  other  coun- 
tries. If  we  do  not  go  into  such  an  inquiry,  it  is 
not  from  hesitation  as  to  the  issue  ;  nor  merely  from 
a  regard  to  our  limits  ;  but  still  more  from  a  deci- 
sive unwillingness  to  affirm,  without  the  adduction 
of  ample  proof,  even  those  things  of  which  we 
have  the  most  entire  persuasion,  and  the  truth  of 
which  long  observation  has  confirmed. 

In  taking  however  the  other  method — namely, 
that  of  inferring  the  proper  moral  operation  of  cer- 
tain religious  truths  from  their  manifest  tendency, 
we  do  not  intend  in  any  instance,  to  draw  inferen- 
ces not  sustained,  as  we  fully  believe,  by  sufficient 
evidence  ;  much  less  to  assume  in  theory  what  is 
contradicted  in  fact. 

This  method  moreover,  is  warranted  by  the  be- 
lief which,  as  we  think,  the  entire  course  of  human 
affairs,  within  the  circle  of  church  history,  suggests, 
or  which  it  impels  us  to  adopt,  that  the  religion  of 
Christ,  destined  as  it  is  to  bless  the  human  family 
through  a  far  extended  period,  ought  to  be  consid- 
ered as  now,  in  our  times,  preparing  itself  for  a 
development  of  its  powers,  proportioned,  at  once, 
tp  the  wide  extent,  and  to  the  long  continuance  of 


CHRISTIANITY.  143 

its  ultimate  triumph.  The  cycles  of  the  Gospel 
have  been  slow  in  their  revolutions,  because  the  en- 
tire period  of  its  history  on  earth  is  of  incalculable 
extent. 

How  then  do  such  views  bear  upon  our  present 
subject? — Just  as  the  breaking  of  the  morning 
affects  the  movements  of  those  who,  in  painful 
anxiety,  have  watched  through  the  night.  While 
thus  therefore  considering  what  is,  and  should  be, 
the  moral  influence  of  the  Gospel,  we  are,  in  this 
sense,  "  forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  and 
reaching  forward  to  those  that  are  before."  We 
are  not  thinking  of  the  struggles  of  that  which  is 
expiring ;  but  of  that  which  is  even  now  coming  to 
the  birth. 

We  are  then  to  confine  our  'view  of  Christianity 
to  that  aspect  of  it  in  which  it  presents  itself  as  a 
power,  adapted  to  the  reformation  of  the  human 
family  ;  or  its  restoration,  universally,  to  a  condition 
of  purity,  brotherly  affection,  and  rectitude  ;  and  to 
so  much  happiness  as  the  prevalence  of  truth  and 
love  must  ensure. 

That  the  religion  of  Christ  was  framed  with  the 
intention  of  bringing  about  such  a  restitution  of 
the  social  system,  and  that  it  is  actually  advancing 
toward  the  accomplishment  of  that  end,  will,  as  we 
think,  convincingly  appear  if  we  look  to  two  or 


144  ON    SPIRITUAL 

three  special  instances,  in  which  what  it  has  actu- 
ally effected  affords  ground  of  hope  for  its  further 
triumphs. 

It  is  certain  that  while  the  New  Testament  con- 
tains, scattered  over  its  surface,  the  definite  articles 
of  a  perfect  system  of  ethics,  delivered  in  the  form 
of  precise  precepts  and  prohibitions  ;  it  contains 
moreover,  and  which  are  the  secret  of  its  power, 
vital  principles,  not  always  defined  ;  but  which,  as 
they  are  evolved,  one  after  another,  and  are  succes- 
sively brought  to  bear  upon  the  opinions  and  man- 
ners of  Christianized  nations,  do  actually  remove 
from  them  those  flagrant  evils  which  had  accumu- 
lated in  the  course  of  time,  and  which,  so  long  as 
they  are  prevalent,  abate  very  much  the  religious 
sensibilities  even  of  those  who  are  the  most  consci- 
entious. 

Let  it  then  be  well  observed  that,  while  the  con- 
science of  the  individual  Christian — studious  of  his 
Bible,  is  informed  and  directed,  and  his  conduct  is 
bound  by  explicit  precepts,  touching  at  all  points 
the  entire  surface  of  his  moral  existence ;  these 
precepts  are  propounded  always  as  exemplifica- 
tions of  principles,  supposed  to  reside  in  his  bosom, 
as  a  Christian,  and  apart  from  which  the  mere  pre- 
cept, even  if  rigorously  respected,  would  leave  him 
liable  to  the  imputation  of  not  fulfilling  "  the  law 
of  Christ."  It  must  be  so;  because  Christianity 


CHRISTIANITY.  145 

is  a  spiritual  religion ; — a  new  life  of  the  soul,  ma- 
nifesting itself,  as  occasion  arises,  in  the  outward 
behaviour. 

But  this  is  not  all ;  and  it  is  at  the  present  mo- 
ment especially  important  to  keep  the  further  truth 
in  mind,  that  the  New  Testament,  considered  as 
embodying  a  system  of  morals  for  the  world — a 
system  which  is  slowly  to  develop  itself,  until  the 
human  family  has  been  led  by  it  into  the  path  of 
peace  and  purity,  effects  this  great  purpose,  not  by 
prohibiting,  in  so  many  words,  the  evils  it  is  at 
length  to  abolish ;  but  by  putting  in  movement  un- 
obtrusive impulses,  which  nothing,  in  the  end,  shall 
be  able  to  withstand. 

It  is  in  this  manner  that  the  Gospel  has  already 
conquered  for  itself  an  ample  territory  of  just  and 
humane  sentiments,  on  the  field  of  the  social  sys- 
tem ;  and  it  is  thus  that  it  is  now,  with  an  observ- 
able acceleration,  going  forth — conquering  and  to 
conquer.  These  conquests  proceed  even  at  times 
when  Christian  piety  may  not  be  in  the  most  heal- 
thy state.  We  take  an  instance  or  two  ;  and  those 
which  we  shall  name  will  show  that  no  hopes  of  re- 
formation for  the  world,  if  clearly  founded  upon 
what  we  may  be  sure  is  the  ultimate  moral  inten- 
tion of  the  Scriptures,  ought  to  be  regarded  as  chi- 
merical ;  and  that,  with  a  steady  faith,  we  may  look 
forward  to  what  would  deserve  to  be  called  a  gold- 
13 


146  ON     SPIRITUAL 

en  age,  so  far  as  the  universal  prevalence  of 
Christian  principles  must  bring  about  so  happy  a 
condition  of  the  human  family. 

To  the  Gospel,  thus  working  reformation  by  the 
noiseless  operation  of  its  ethical  principles,  blessing 
us  often  unawares,  and  even  against  the  bent  of 
our  perverse  wills — to  the  gospel,  Woman  owes 
every  thing  good  ;  for  she  derives  from  it  her  power 
to  bless  indeed  those  whom  she  loves  ;  and  thus  to 
become  herself  happy.  Acknowledged  as  "  one 
in  Christ,"  with  man,  and  a  sharer  in  the  perils  and 
dignities  of  personal  responsibility  to  God,  and  a 
partner,  without  a  shade  of  difference,  in  the  hope 
of  immortality,  she  takes  a  place  never  before 
granted  to  her.  This  religious  equality  is  enough 
to  ensure  her  welfare  in  every  other  sense  ;  and  the 
formal  precepts  which  guard  the  sanctities  of  do- 
mestic life  stand  forth  indeed  as  law  ;  but  are,  in  a 
manner,  superseded  by  deeper  forces,  which  work 
from  within.  The  precept  is  the  verbal  expression 
of  something  more  efficient,  and  of  wider  applica- 
tion than  itself.  Polygamy — the  curse  of  man,  not 
only  disappears,  (and  whether  it  be  distinctly  pro- 
hibited or  not)  but  a  broad  foundation  is  laid  for  the 
choicest  happiness  which  earth  admits,  that  of  the 
untainted  domestic  affections.  If  then  a  question 
could  be  seriously  agitated  as  to  the  lawfulness  of 
polygamy,  under  the  Christian  system,  it  would 


CHRISTIANITY.  147 

properly  be  determined,  not  by  searching  for  enact- 
ments, or  statutes  ;  but  by  considering  whether  the 
hopes  and  dignities  of  Christian  piety  be  woman's 
right ;  for  if  they  be,  then  is  she  no  longer  man's 
slave  ;  but  his  friend  and  companion  on  the  road  to 
heaven ;  and  as  such,  her  pure  affections  are  not  to 
be  outraged,  or  herself  degraded.  This  instance 
exemplifies  that  occult,  but  efficacious  process  by 
which  the  religion  of  Christ  brings  about  the  reform 
of  manners,  more  certainly  than  could  be  done  by 
prohibitions. 

It  was  as  opposed  to  the  first  principles  of  the 
Gospel — the  gospel  of  mercy,  that  the  sanguinary 
passion  for  the  shameless  murders  of  the  public 
games  gave  way.  The  Apostles,  in  their  circuits 
through  the  Roman  world,  had  everywhere  wit- 
nessed these  horrors  ;  and  yet  they  did  not,  as  an- 
gry reformers  would  undoubtedly  have  done,  openly 
inveigh  against  them  ;  nor  did  they  explicitly  for- 
bid Christians  to  take  part  in  them.  But  they 
taught  humanity  on  principles  so  deep  and  wide,  as 
to  ensure,  at  length,  the  removal  of  these  atrocities, 
wherever  the  Gospel  should  come  to  be  respected 
by  the  government  of  any  country. 

Or  we  may  take  the  very  significant  instance  of 
slavery — that  horrid  usage — backed  by  a  worse 
doctrine — slavery,  which  at  this  moment  is  cursing 
the  world,  less  even  by  the  miseries  it  immediately 


148  ON    SPIRITUAL 

entails,  than  by  causing,  as  it  does,  a  blockage  on 
that  high  road  whereon  mercy  and  truth  for  all  na- 
tions are  ready  to  make  their  triumphant  progress. 

The  present  patrons  of  this  enormity  please  them- 
selves in  affirming,  what  is  indeed  true,  that  neither 
Christ  nor  his  Apostles  explicitly  forbid  it.  They 
do  not ; — but  they  have  done  more  than  forbid  it ; 
for  they  have  challenged  the  slave  as  man,  and  have 
taught  him  that  his  soul  can  neither  be  bought  nor 
sold.  Only  leave  this  doctrine  to  take  its  effect, 
and  it  will,  in  its  season,  emancipate  his  body. 
Christ,  moreover,  has  taught  men  to  cherish  and 
to  respect  each  other  as  brethren.  But  will  slavery 
consist  with  the  universal  acceptance  of  any  such 
royal  law  of  love  ?  It  will  not.  Christianity  and 
slavery,  when  the  former  comes  to  rule  the  world, 
will  not  endure  each  other  :  the  one  must  expel  and 
destroy  the  other  ;  for  they  work,  not  merely  from 
different,  but  from  antagonist  principles  : — the  one 
is  fatal  to  the  other  ;  and  that  one  which  cannot  die, 
must  ere  long  slay  its  rival. 

This  signal  instance  is  the  more  pertinent  to  our 
immediate  argument,  inasmuch  as  it  is  now,  on  a 
large  scale,  and  under  circumstances  of  unusual 
excitement,  displaying  this  very  characteristic  of 
Christian  ethics,  to  effect  an  ulterior  beneficent  in- 
tention by  the  efficacy  of  its  principles,  more  than 
by  the  force  of  its  precepts.  Moreover,  it  is  to  be 


CHRISTIANITY.  149 

observed,  that  while  the  evil  against  which  the  Gos- 
pel is  thus  directing  its  silent  irresistible  energy,  is 
of  the  highest  enormity,  the  absence  of  express  pro- 
hibitions on  the  subject,  and  the  apparent  sanction 
of  an  implicit  approval,  give  the  bolder  relief  to  the 
doctrine  we  are  illustrating.  For  in  this  instance 
it  is  seen,  that,  notwithstanding  the  ambiguity  or 
silence  of  the  Christian  code,  touching  slavery,  and 
notwithstanding  the  fact  of  its  having  given  its  in- 
fluence more  explicitly  to  strengthen  the  principle 
of  patient  endurance  in  the  slave,  than  to  inculcate 
upon  the  master  the  duty  of  releasing  his  bondman  ; 
— that  yet  the  deep-working  principle  of  Christian- 
ity— its  force  of  love,  as  it  slowly  develops  itself, 
and  becomes  better  understood,  and  takes  a  firmer 
hold  of  all  minds,  and  raises  the  standard  of  humane 
feeling,  must  render  slavery  every  year  less  and 
less  tolerable,  within  Christianized  communities — 
must  at  length  expel  it  from  the  bosom  of  civiliza- 
tion— must  drive  it  further  and  further  outward  into 
the  wilds  of  society,  and  leave  it,  seen  and  con- 
fessed as  such,  a  sheer  curse,  resting  upon  the  heads 
and  homes  of  its  infatuated  supporters  ;  and  at  length 
bring  it  to  be  denounced,  by  all  but  savages,  as  a 
nuisance  in  the  world — a  nuisance  insufferable,  to 
be  swept  away  at  whatever  risk. 

A  parallel  instance  of  the  gradual  efficacy  of  the 
Christian  ethics  in  removing  inveterate  evils  by  the 
13* 


150  ON     SPIRITUAL 

slow  expansion  of  principles,  rather  than  by  express 
prohibitions,  is  that  of  War.  The  amiable  friends 
of  universal  peace  seem,  although  diametrically  op- 
posed in  every  thing  to  the  upholders  of  slavery,  yet 
to  have  fallen  into  a  similar  misapprehension  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Christian  code.  For  while  the  apolo- 
gists of  slavery  are  looking  into  the  New  Testament 
for  what  may  serve  to  palliate  their  horrid  doctrine, 
in  the  way  of  apparent  connivance,  the  friends  of 
Peace  are  searching  for  that  which,  we  presume, 
they  will  not  find — direct  prohibitions  of  war  ;  al- 
though they  may  easily  find  that  which  must,  in  its 
season,  and  perhaps  at  no  very  remote  period,  re- 
lieve the  world  of  this  scourge,  and  for  ever.  Let 
but  a  Christian  feeling  pervade,  even  if  it  were  only 
three  powerful  communities  of  the  civilized  world 
— and  there  would  be  no  more  war,  in  any  corner 
of  it. 

Now  in  any  instance  in  which  the  patrons  of 
prescriptive  evils  run  to  the  Scriptures  to  find  either 
precedent  for  them,  or  the  absence  of  formal  pro- 
hibitions, they  might  be  told,  not  merely  that,  in 
taking  such  a  part,  they  show  themselves  to  be 
destitute  of  "  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ ;"  but 
that  they  totally,  misunderstand  the  very  structure 
of  the  Christian  system,  as  an  ethical  code,  and 
which  we  are  bound  to  regard  always  in  its  power 
and  purport,  rather  than  in  its  prohibitions  ;  and 


CHRISTIANITY.  151 

especially  when  we  have  to  do  with  immoral  usages 
peculiar  to  countries,  or  to  times.  The  reprovers 
of  such  usages  should  therefore  be  peculiarly  care- 
ful not  to  stake  a  good  cause  upon  the  interpreta- 
tion of  single  texts  ;  but  should  rather  bend  their 
utmost  endeavours  to  the  work  of  promulgating,  in 
the  purest  form,  those  first  truths  before  which 
nothing  that  is  malign,  unjust,  or  impure,  will  be 
able  to  stand.  It  is  a  circumstance  deserving  to  be 
noticed,  that  those  who  have  the  most  signalized 
their  zeal  in  opposition  to  special  evils,  have  not 
often  been  remarkable  for  their  cordial  regard  to  the 
great  truths  of  the  Gospel. 

This  practical  error,  so  often  fallen  into  by  Chris- 
tian philanthropists,  unfortunately  gives  counte- 
nance, indirectly,  to  the  course  pursued  by  men  of 
an  opposite  temper,  who,  in  quoting  Scripture  (as 
Satan  quotes  it)  in  defence  of  impiety  and  wrong, 
plant  the  Gospel,  in  the  Gospel's  own  path  ;  and 
doubly  obstruct  its  triumphant  progress,  first,  by 
upholding  what  is  wicked  ;  and  then  by  loading 
Christianity  with  the  disgrace  of  seeming  to  sup- 
port it. 

Let  the  Gospel,  in  its  genuine  energy,  pervade  a 
community,  and  each  ancient  abuse  that  attaches 
to  it,  will  come,  in  its  turn,  to  be  questioned  and 
rebuked,  and  will  at  length  yield  to  this  sovereign 
influence.  We  confide  too  little  in  the  heavenly 


152  ON     SPIRITUAL 

efficacy  of  Christian  principles,  when  we  labour  to 
effect  reformations  on  the  lower  ground  of  utility, 
or  of  a  temporizing  expediency. 

And  yet  even  when  argued  on  these  lower  grounds, 
the  purity  of  the  Christian  ethics  seldom  fails  to  win 
a  triumph.  Some  old  injustice — some  immemorial 
wrong,  which  has  worked  as  a  canker  within  the 
social  system,  is  at  length  brought  under  notice. 
This  interference  of  "  busy  zeal"  is  at  first  hotly 
resented.  The  originators  of  the  protest  look  again 
to  the  grounds  of  their  objection,  and  strengthen 
their  argument.  The  reasons  they  advance  compel 
attention,  and  are  examined,  and  then  the  entire 
code  of  Christian  ethics,  as  applicable  to  the  evil  in 
question,  is  brought  to  bear  upon  it.  The  result, 
whether  it  be  more  or  less  definite,  and  even  if  the 
first  protest  be  overruled,  is  to  raise  the  tone  of 
moral  feeling,  throughout  the  community,  and  to 
bring  the  rule  of  morals  into  closer  contact  with 
the  consciences  of  all  who  are  sincere  in  their 
Christian  profession.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  has 
thus  won  another  triumph,  in  preparation  for  that 
which  shall  be  universal ;  and  to  the  eye  of  an  in- 
telligent observer  these  successive  evolutions  of 
Christian  morality,  are  clearly  predictive  of  such  a 
triumph. 

If  Christianity  be  yet  upheld  in  its  purity  ;  and  if 
it  be  permitted  to  work  its  way  forward,  a  time  must 


CHRISTIANITY.  153 

come,  when  the  acceleration  of  its  progress  shall 
attract  all  eyes,  and  shall  begin  to  date  its  periodic 
advances,  not  by  centuries,  but  by  years ;  or  even 
by  months  and  days.  The  world  is  governed,  less 
by  the  direct  influence  of  known  and  fixed  truths, 
than  by  variable  feeling,  reverberated  from  all  sides ; 
just  as  the  temperature  of  the  atmosphere  is  main- 
tained, not  by  the  full  sunshine,  but  by  the  radiation 
of  heat  from  all  surfaces  on  earth.  Men  individual- 
ly— or  at  least  those  who  are  open  to  moral  influ- 
ence at  all,  act  in  a  manner  which  represents,  not 
their  individual  acquaintance  with  what  is  right,  but 
that  diffused  sense  of  right  which  a  few,  who  in- 
tensely feel  it,  have  shed  around  them. 

Thus  it  is  that  every  powerful  impulse  communi- 
cated to  the  social  mass  by  energetic  minds  repro- 
duces itself,  until  even  the  few  almost  lose  their 
distinction  of  feeling  more  than  others,  and  of  think- 
ing more  justly ;  because  they  have  brought  the 
many  to  think  and  feel  with  them.  This  has  hap- 
pened several  times  within  the  last  fifty  years. 

How  much  soever  there  may  be  still  to  lament  in 
the  moral  condition  of  this  country  ;  yet  those  who 
are  able  to  recall,  with  distinctness,  the  state  of 
opinion,  of  feeling,  and  of  manners,  in  particular 
respects,  about  the  close  of  the  last  century,  must 
acknowledge  that  great  progress  has  been  made, 
if  not  in  reforming  the  mass  of  the  people,  yet  in 


154  ON     SPIRITUAL 

bringing  better  modes  of  thinking,  and  purer  and 
more  humane  sentiments  into  credit,  and  in  securing 
for  them  an  undisputed  influence.  Much  has  been 
done  within  the  compass  of  forty  years,  having  the 
aspect  of  a  preparatory  work,  and  the  full  effect  of 
which  may  be  expected  to  appear,  like  the  sudden 
verdure  and  fertility  of  a  northern  summer,  at  the 
moment  when  a  new  promulgation  of  great  truths 
— an  uncontradicted  expansion  of  evangelic  doctrine, 
shall  throw  fresh  life  into  the  Christian  body. 

The  grievous  evils  which  affect  the  mass  of  the 
people — their  ignorance,  recklessness,  and  misery, 
have  so  been  made  the  subjects  of  anxious  con- 
sideration of  late,  and  have  so,  in  their  frightful 
details  been  explored,  and  attested,  and  so  mea- 
sured in  their  vast  extent,  and  so  spread  to  view  in 
their  particulars,  that,  without  an  hour's  delay,  the 
remedy  would  be  applied,  and  the  true  means  of 
renovation  zealously  employed,  were  but  the  middle 
and  upper  classes — through  the  Divine  mercy — to 
awake  to  a  Christian  feeling  in  this  behalf.  May 
we  assume  that  the  preparation  foreshows  such  an 
awakening  to  be  at  hand  ? 

The  contributions,  labours,  sacrifices,  demanded 
by  a  Christian  care  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  and 
which  it  must  seem  extravagant  to  expect,  while 
whatever  is  needed  for  such  purposes  is  to  be 
wrung,  by  the  importunities  of  a  few,  from  the  in- 


CHRISTIANITY.  155 

difference  or  reluctance  of  the  many — such  aids 
would  flow  in  as  a  mighty  river,  if  an  accordant 
evangelic  feeling  were  to  spread  itself  among  those 
who  already  come  within  the  influence  of  Christian 
instruction.  Great  truths  once  recognised  cordially 
by  a  Christianized  community,  and  then  the  ardent 
benevolence  which  lately  was  the  distinction  of 
those  who  are  benevolent  by  constitution,  becomes 
the  common  sentiment  of  many  ;  and  a  generous 
glow  of  charity  which  had  appeared  like  a  hectic 
spot,  now  gives  the  colour  of  florid  health  to  the 
social  body.  Sentiments  of  justice  and  kindness 
(hardly  to  be  distinguished  when  both  are  vivid) 
kindling  from  heart  to  heart,  and  lit  up  by  inter- 
changed sympathies,  whatever  is  well  proved  to  be 
just,  kind,  and  reasonable  is  borne  forward,  as  by 
a  tide  ;  whereas,  while  the  mass  of  society  is  stag- 
nant, things  good  and  just,  if  carried  at  all,  are  car- 
ried as  by  the  force  of  a  hurricane ;  and  in  such 
instances,  although  the  triumph  of  humanity  is  joy- 
fully hailed,  the  result  disappoints  the  hopes  it  had 
excited. 

When  not  springing  from  great  truths — and 
therefore  not  truly  Christian  in  principle,  the  best- 
intended  reforms  of  morals  have  not  merely  failed 
of  effecting  their  object ;  but  have  brought  upon 
society  the  most  terrible  reactions  ;  as  if  to  compen- 
sate the  Patron  of  evil  for  some  temporary  re- 


156  ON     SPIRITUAL 

straints,  by  a  wild  outbreak  of  licentiousness,  not  to 
be  repressed  in  a  century  ! 

This  in  fact  has  been  the  melancholy  story,  again 
and   again,    of  attempted  reformations   in  morals, 
through  the  successive  periods  of  Christian  history  ; 
and   surely   this   mass  of  experiments,   prompted 
often  by  benevolence,  but  unwisely  contrived,  and 
unhappily  concluded,  should  avail  to  teach  some 
caution  to  those  who  are  zealously  labouring  to 
effect  the  suppression  of  flagrant  evils  by  factitious 
means ;  or  if  by  means  lawful,  yet  not  in  accord- 
ance with  the  first  principle  of  Christianity,  con- 
sidered as  a  scheme  of  ethics.     Christian  morality 
knows  nothing  of  reforms  that  do  not  spring  from 
an  inner  impulse — even  the  impulse  of  a  Christian 
faith ;  nor  admits  such  as  are  imposed  by  a  power 
acting  upon  the  surface  of  human  nature,  and  work- 
ing on  toward  the  centre. 

There  is  too  much  reason  to  fear  that,  when 
Christian  energies  are  set  to  work  in  this  introverted 
direction,  which  is  not  proper  to  them,  the  mischief 
intended  to  be  removed,  is  pent  up  only,  and  gath- 
ers both  heat  and  expansive  force  during  its  short 
season  of  compression,  which  shall  teach  us  our 
error  by  the  tremendous  impetuosity  of  its  explo- 
sion. 

As  on  the  present  occasion  we  at  once  challenge 
entire  independence,  and  disdain  every  ambiguity, 


CHRISTIANITY 

we  cannot  do  less  than  plainly  express' 
that  the  benevolent,  and  no  doubt  greatly  successful 
endeavours  now  making  to  repress  the  use  of 
intoxicating  liquors — we  must  not  say  to  promote 
temperance ;  for  temperance  is  altogether  another 
matter — these  endeavours,  involving  pleas  and  pre- 
texts which  common  sense  resents,  might  well  bear 
to  be  seriously  reconsidered  ;  and  placed  on  a 
basis  of  principles  truly  and  distinctively  Chris- 
tian. 

Two  courses  are  highly  dangerous  in  morals  ; 
nay,  we  must  say,  are  of  fatal  tendency,  and  are 
sure  to  turn  virtue  back  upon  itself,  with  loss  and 
discredit.  The  first  is  to  teach  men,  either  direct- 
ly, or  by  a  clear  implication,  that  it  is  vain  for 
them,  such  as  they  are,  to  hope  to  become  virtuous, 
or  to  control  their  passions,  with  a  uniform  and 
religious  governance  of  the  lower  nature  by  the 
higher.  The  second  error  is  to  suggest  to  them 
the  belief,  or  to  teach  it,  that  they  may  become 
virtuous  on  some  other  than  the  highest  principles. 

The  first  error  promotes  the  sordid  ethics  of 
interest  or  expediency ;  the  real  meaning  of  which 
is,  that,  if  a  man  can  but  by  any  dexterity  evade  ill 
consequences  to  himself,  it  matters  nothing  whether 
his  bosom  be  the  residence  of  an  angel,  or  the  cage 
of  seven  demons, 

The  second  of  these  errors,  should  it  pervade  a 
14 


158  ON     SPIRITUAL 

community,  would  have  the  effect,  if  we  might  use 
the  figure,  of  bleeding  Truth  to  death  ;  for  it  would 
bring  about  such  a  contempt  of  principle,  as  must 
end  in  leaving  society  to  be  governed  by  the  most 
frivolous  of  all  motives — those  of  conventional  de- 
cency— courtesy,  heartless  honour,  and  a  varnished 
selfishness. 

But  Christianity,  as  a  system  of  morals,  while  it 
rejects  any  partial  and  interested  concession  to  vir- 
tue, implying  disaffection  to  virtue's  self,  and  com- 
mands every  man  to  be  religiously  virtuous,  not 
factiously  abstinent ;  opens  to  all  the  means  of  be- 
coming so,  by  surrendering  themselves  to  its  own 
efficacious  truths.  Not  only  is  a  conventional  or 
arbitrary  morality  incomplete,  as  Compared  with 
Christian  morality ;  for  it  is  Unlawful — it  is  pro- 
hibited— it  is  condemned,  as  an  insult,  at  once  to 
the  Law,  and  to  the  Mercy  of  Heaven. 

Here  then  we  make  our  stand  in  behalf  of  Spiri- 
tual Christianity,  considered  as  a  means  of  pro- 
ducing genuine  virtue  ;  and  we  affirm  this  to  be  its 
first  characteristic — THAT  IT  ATTACHES  A  SOVE^ 

REIGN  IMPORTANCE  TO  TRUTH,  AS  FURNISHING  THE 
ONLY  SOLID  SUPPORT  FOR  THE  MOTIVES  OF  SELF- 
dOVERNMENT,  PURITY,  AND  CHARITY. 

Every  other  notion  of  Christianity — every  scheme 
of  piety  and  virtue  which  we  must  think  ourselves 
bound  to  except  against  as  unchristian,  or  as 


CHRISTIANITY.  159 

Christian  only  in  a  mutilated  sense,  has  either  pre- 
sented a  lifeless  body  of  precepts  and  prohibitions  ; 
or,  if  it  has  rested  upon  motives  and  principles,  these 
have  not  been  those  of  the  Gospel,  which  are  at 
once  deep,  serious  and  happy.  There  have  been 
systems  of  morality,  called  Christian,  some  of  them 
indulgent,  and  gay  in  their  aspect ;  and  others  aus- 
tere ;  but  Christian  morality,  springing  as  it  does 
from  its  own  truths,  is  at  once  far  more  profound 
than  the  severe  scheme,  and  far  more  happy  than 
the  lax  and  frivolous  scheme. 

But  at  this  point  an  acknowledgment  must  be 
made  which  is  due  to  the  thorough  impartiality  we 
profess.  When  we  speak,  as  we  are  compelled  to 
do,  of  two  parties,  now  ostensibly  opposed,  one  to 
the  other ; — the  one  promoting  what  we  cannot  but 
condemn  as  superstitious,  and  deficient  in  evangelic 
feeling ;  and  the  other  party  as  maintaining  evan- 
gelic principles  of  the  highest  importance  ;  it  must 
by  no  means  be  thence  inferred  that  we  mean  to 
represent  the  one  party  as  altogether  to  be  reprobat- 
ed, and  the  other  party,  as  altogether  to  be  approved, 
in  matters  of  Christian  practice.  Truth  and  virtue, 
we  do  not  hold  to  be  chartered  to  companies  :  they 
are  possessed  only  in  part  by  those  who  possess  the 
most  of  them ;  and  they  are  possessed  in  some  good 
measure,  even  by  many  who  must  yet  stand  con- 
demned as  capitally  wrong  in  theology, 


160  ON    SPIRITUAL 

Men,  serious  and  upright,  cannot  easily  be  thought 
altogether  to  have  failed  while  labouring  to  give 
prominence  to  some  one  element  of  Christian  virtue, 
which  their  opponents  may  have  too  little  regarded  ; 
and  concerning  which  these,  their  opponents,  might 
do  well  to  take  lessons  at  their  lips. 

It  is  so,  as  we  presume,  in  the  great  controversy 
which  now  agitates  the  Church.  Assuredly  we  be- 
lieve the  revivers  of  the  mongrel  divinity,  and  dan- 
gerous practices  of  the  ancient  church,  to  be  pursu- 
ing a  course  in  the  last  degree  pernicious  ;  and  so 
far,  those  who  oppose  them  in  this  endeavour  are 
performing  an  urgent  and  important  duty,  and  in  the 
discharge  of  which  we  could  only  wish  them  suc- 
cess. Yet  should  it  be  regarded  as  an  ominous 
triumph,  even  of  evangelic  principles,  if  they  were 
so  to  prevail  as  to  drive  the  chariot  of  controversial 
war  over  the  field,  at  once  crushing  their  antagonists, 
and  demolishing  what  these  may  have  done  in  re- 
freshing particular  branches  of  Christian  morality. 
Rather  let  us  put  on  a  Christian  humility,  and  be 
sincerely  willing  to  learn,  even  from  those  whom  we 
strenuously  oppose,  to  think  anew  of  whatsoever 
things  are  pure,  grave,  seemly,  just,  and  of  good 
report : — whatsoever  things  give  evidence  of  self- 
command,  self-renunciation,  stern  assiduity,  and 
patient  endurance  of  evil. 

While  devoutly  desiring  to  see  the  corruptions  of 


CHRISTIANITY.  161 

the  ancient  church  warded  off  from  the  protestant 
pale,  far  should  we  be  from  desiring  to  witness,  either 
the  personal  discomfiture,  or  disparagement  of  the 
restorers  of  these  errors  ;  or  such  a  reckless  extinc- 
tion of  their  endeavours  as  should  leave  room  for  no 
salutary  reaction  to  take  effect  upon  evangelic  bo- 
dies. Such  a  corrective  influence,  it  ought  to  be 
acknowledged,  has  long  been  greatly  needed  ;  and 
should  be  welcomed  as  seasonable. 

A  willingness  to  receive  correction  in  matters  of 
Christian  morality  from  our  theological  opponents, 
may  well  be  founded  upon  a  consideration  of  the 
fact,  that,  while  the  unhappy  divisions  which  distract 
the  Christian  commonwealth  are  in  part  redeemed 
by  their  tendency  to  preserve,  and  to  give  the  greater 
accuracy  to  dogmatic  principles,  they  have  a  most 
unhappy  influence,  as  well  in  diverting  the  minds  of 
Christian  men  from  the  simple  and  well  understood 
elements  of  morality,  as  in  lowering,  on  all  sides,  the 
due  impression  of  the  sacred  importance  of  these 
simple  elements.  Not  only  are  our  thoughts  so  much 
distracted  by  controversy  that  we  become  far  too 
little  mindful  of  the  tempers  and  virtues  which 
should  recommend  a  Christian  profession  ;  but  the 
solemn  sanctions  of  morality  lose  their  influence 
over  our  minds.  We  become  more  eager  than 
conscientious — more  acute  than  sincere,  and  more 
zealous  than  holy. 
14* 


162  ON     SPIRITUAL 

Whoever  comes  forward  therefore,  to  renovate 
any  one  branch  of  Christian  ethics,  even  though  it 
be  on  defective  principles,  should  meekly  be  listened 
to,  and  the  movement  which  he  originates  should  be 
considered,  so  far  as  it  may  extend,  as  if  it  were — 
which  it  may  in  fact  be,  an  admonition  from  the 
Lord,  calling  upon  all  "  to  do  their  first  works,"  and 
to  repent  of  any  remissness,  or  unfaithfulness,  with 
which  they  may  be  chargeable. 

It  is  trite  to  say  that,  while  the  human  mind  con- 
tinues what  it  is,  men  must  differ,  not  merely  in  taste 
and  intellectual  preferences,  but  even  in  some  of 
those  matters  of  belief  which  should  be  under  the 
control  of  mere  reason :  the  supposition  of  an  age 
of  uniformity  is  therefore  chimerical ;  but  the  sup- 
position— nay,  the  positive  hope  of  an  age  of  Chris- 
tian concord,  and  of  cordial  combination  is  not  chi- 
merical ;  for  it  is  identical  with  the  belief  of  the 
truth  of  Christianity  itself,  and  of  its  triumph  in  the 
world. 

But  when  this  era  of  Christian  harmony  commen- 
ces, and  when  Christian  men  become  "  of  one  mind, 
and  of  one  heart,"  there  will  take  place,  as  we 
cannot  doubt,  a  surprising  reflux  of  feeling  toward 
the  great  matters  of  morality.  The  serious  obliga- 
tions of  justice,  temperance,  purity,  and  charity, 
will  then  be  felt  in  another  manner  ;  and  will  come 
home  to  the  conscience,  not  merely  as  realities,  but 


CHRISTIANITY.         .  163 

almost  as  novelties ;  and  Christian  men  will  be  fain 
to  think  that,  heretofore,  they  have  been  dreaming. 
Ever  must  it  be  true  that  Christian  virtue  is  the 
direct  product  of  Christian  Truths  ;  but  then,  when 
these  are  no  longer  held  in  agitation,  they  will  take 
their  effect,  and  produce  their  fruits,  with  an  abun- 
dance not  heretofore  imagined.  More  than  two  or 
three  passages  of  Scripture,  bearing  upon  the  exact 
retributions  of  a  future  life,  might  be  referred  to, 
which  hitherto  have,  in  a  manner,  slept  on  the  sacred 
page ;  while  eager  controversies  on  points  less  nearly 
connected  with  our  welfare,  have  engaged  all  atten- 
tion. It  cannot  be  doubted  that  these  ominous  inti- 
mations are  to  have  their  turn,  and  to  take  the  place 
due  to  them  in  the  minds  of  Christians.  When  thus 
regarded,  Christian  morals  may  assume  almost  a 
new  aspect. 

That  we  have  not  misunderstood  the  Christian 
morality,  as  intended  to  work  its  effects  by  the  latent 
operation  of  great  principles  rather  than  by  the  force 
of  precepts  and  prohibitions,  appears  from  the  re- 
markable quality  of  our  Lord's  method  of  teaching 
morals — namely,  that  of  enouncing  principles  of 
conduct  in  such  a  form  as  absolutely  to  exclude  the 
supposition  that  he  intended  to  deliver  positive 

enactments. 
In  each  instance  some  principle  of  his  divine 


164  ON     SPIRITUAL 

morality  is  presented  to  us,  so  stated  or  so  exem- 
plified, as  that  it  can  be  available  for  our  guidance, 
only  as  illustrating  a  principle  ;  and  so  as  to  imply 
what  would  be  incompatible  with  other  precepts,  or 
even  plainly  immoral,  if  it  were  understood  in  any 
other  manner.  "  Unless  a  man  hate  his  father  and 
his  mother,  he  cannot,"  says  Christ,  "  be  my  dis- 
ciple." Who  can  for  a  moment  imagine  that  this, 
and  many  similar  injunctions,  are  positive  laws,  or 
statutes  absolute  ?  As  well  give  a  literal  import  to 
his  injunction  to  "  eat  his  flesh,  and  drink  his  blood." 

If  it  were  objected  that,  in  thus  reading  our  Lord's 
system  of  morals,  we  are  lowering  the  import  of  his 
commands,  we  reply  that  we  are  not  lowering,  but 
rather  heightening  it ;  for  we  give  these  precepts  a 
far  more  comprehensive  interpretation,  by  this 
means ;  and  send  them  in  upon  the  centre  of  the 
moral  faculties — upon  the  conscience,  instead  of 
leaving  them  to  rankle,  as  otherwise  they  must  do, 
upon  the  surface,  where  they  can  effect  no  good. 

In  all  sincerity,  and  inasmuch  as,  without  intend- 
ing offence  to  any,  we  must  allow  our  argument  to 
take  effect  where  it  may,  we  should  here  advert  to 
that  error  in  ethics  which  has  been  the  besetting 
fault  of  many  seriously-minded  persons,  in  every 
age  ; — we  mean  that  of  frittering  down  the  evan- 
gelic principles  of  morality,  into  specific  precepts , 
which,  in  that  form,  are  either  impracticable,  or 


CHRISTIANITY.  165 

frivolous.  What  is  the  consequence  ?  Thus  un- 
derstood— or  rather  misunderstood,  the  law  of 
Christ  is  made  to  stand  opposed,  not  to  the  bad 
customs  of  the  world,  but  to  the  very  constitution 
of  society  ;  and  is  made  to  forbid,  with  equal  stern* 
ness,  what  is  indifferent  or  innocent,  and  what  is 
unquestionably  vicious.  But  nothing  tends  so 
certainly  to  merge  the  distinction  between  good 
and  evil,  as  to  prohibit  things  indifferent,  or  appa- 
rently so,  with  a  Draco's  severity.  In  truth  this 
method  of  literally  interpreting  our  Lord's  moral 
discourses,  offers  to  the  world  so  grotesque  a 
portraiture  of  Christianity,  that  it  is  likely  to  be 
regarded  as  nothing  better  than  a  system  of  punc- 
tilious scrupulosities,  and  frivolous  evasions. 

"  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,"  said  our 
Lord,  "  are  spirit  and  truth."  And  have  not  all 
facts  established  his  conclusion — that  "  the  letter 
indeed  killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth  life  ;"  for  in 
every  case  in  which  men  of  an  ardent  and  serious 
temper  have  taken  up  the  letter  instead  of  the  spirit 
of  Christian  morality,  they  themselves,  or  their 
immediate  successors,  have  fallen,  as  we  might 
say,  lifeless,  into  the  arms  of  formality; — each 
generation  becoming  more  and  more  forgetful  of 
vital  truths. 

But  now,  if  Christianity,  as  a  scheme  of  morals, 
is  intended  to  produce  its  effect  rather  by  principles 


166  ON     SPIRITUAL 

than  precepts,  we  reach  our  second  position; 
namely,  that  it  does  so  by  its  ONENESS  OF  PRIN- 
CIPLE ;  or  its  CONCENTRATION  or  MOTIVES.  Chris- 
tian morality  is  an  emanation — not  from  two  or 
more  centres,  but  from  one. 

Is  it  not  a  fact,  well  understood  in  the  philosophy 
of  human  nature,  that,  wherever  we  find  a  high 
degree  of  moral  energy,  of  any  kind,  and  whether 
it  be  good  or  evil  in  itself,  it  is  always  the  energy 
of  concentration  1  Force,  in  conduct  and  character, 
whether  it  be  benevolent  or  malignant,  is  the  force 
of  Unity,  or  the  sovereignty  of  a  single  motive,  or 
of  a  balance  of  motives,  well  combined.  True  is 
it  in  morals,  that  "  a  double-minded  man  " — a  man 
acting,  now  from  the  impulse  of  one  motive,  now 
from  that  of  another — "  is  unstable  in  all  his  ways  " 
— easily  diverted  from  his  path,  or  as  easily  over- 
thrown upon  it.  Ought  we  not  therefore  to  look  for 
this  same  concentration  in  the  morality  of  Christ? 
If  it  is  to  be  full  of  force — if  it  is  to  be  a  principle 
of  power,  and  equal  to  the  services  and  sacrifices 
of  the  Christian  life,  it  must  possess  this  charac- 
teristic. 

What  remains  then  is  to  seek  the  true  centre  of 
Christian  morals  ; — to  find  its  law  of  concentration. 
Having  found  it,  we  shall  do  better  to  leave  it  full  in 
view,  and  boldly  expressed  in  a  few  words,  than  to 
dilate  it  in  a  lengthened  discussion,  This  then 


CHRISTIANITY.  167 

must  be  the  characteristic  of  Christian  morality — 
That  it  springs  all  from  one  centre  ;  and  that  centre 
the  same  which  is  the  centre  of  all  light  and  warmth 
in  the  scheme  of  Christian  doctrine. 

If  indeed  man  be  capable  of  generous  and  happy 
emotions,  and  if  it  be  only  when  acting  under  the 
influence  of  such  emotions  that  he  puts  forth  what- 
ever energy  his  individual  constitution  may  admit 
of,  then  it  is  certain  that  no  principle  of  duty  which 
does  not  deeply  touch  the  emotions  of  love  and 
gratitude,  can  become  a  principle  of  concentration, 
or  be  of  avail  to  bring  forth  the  entire  power  of  the 
character, 

It  is  thus  that  a  generous  motive,  ruling  the  mind, 
even  if  it  be  a  very  faulty  one,  and  liable  perhaps 
to  the  condemnation  of  the  moralist,  nevertheless  is 
found  to  carry  men  further  in  arduous  and  perilous 
services  than  they  are  ever  carried  by  a  mere  sense 
of  duty.  What  sort  of4  virtue  is  that  which  springs 
from,  and  is  always  regulated  by  a  calculation  of 
consequences,  turning  in  upon  the  man's  insulated 
welfare — or  upon  what  he  supposes  to  be  his  wel- 
fare ?  This  is  not  morality— but  arithmetic ;  Nor1 
do  we  hesitate  to  affirm  that  a  community  would 
have  more  to  fear,  in  which  such  a  principle  were 
to  prevail,  and  to  be  openly  and  generally  recog- 
nized and  formally  taught,  than  one  in  which  morals 
were  actually  at  a  very  low  ebb,  while  yet  the  true 


168  ON      SPIRITUAL 

principle  of  virtue  was  in  theory  admitted  ;  for  it  is 
clearly  better  that  men  should  still  be  men,  even 
though  bad,  than  that  they  should  have  become 
mere  automatons  of  selfishness. 

There  may  be  other,  and  loftier  motives  of  virtue, 
less  to  be  condemned  than  the  atheistic  doctrine  of 
expediency,  and  which  may  in  fact  go  far  in  car- 
rying men  through  the  duties  of  common  life 
unblamably  ;  but,  failing  in  warmth  and  animation, 
and  not  so  springing  from  the  centre  of  the  moral 
faculties  as  to  embrace  and  harmonize  its  emotions, 
they  are  little  to  be  accounted  of ; — they  are  morali- 
ties, not  virtue ;  for  virtue  is  one ;  nor  can  it  be 
such,  if  it  allow  any  principal  element  of  our  nature 
to  remain  in  a  dormant  condition,  or  if  it  repress 
the  free  exercise  of  any. 

The  Truths,  which  in  the  preceding  Lecture  were 
affirmed  to  be  of  the  very  substance  of  Christianity, 
being  assumed  as  certain,  how  can  they  be  regard- 
ed otherwise  than  as  the  ground  or  reason  of  the 
motiyes  of  Christian  morality  ? — they  must,  if  they 
are  believed  to  be  true.  Can  they  be  cordially  ad- 
mitted, and  yet  take  any  other  position  than  the 
highest  in  our  regard,  or  affect  us  in  any  other  than 
the  most  sovereign  manner  ? 

Christian  virtue  then,  can  be  nothing  less  than 
a  concentrated  love,  or  devotion  of  the  soul  to  the 
service  of  Him  to  whom  we  owe,  not  natural  life 


CHRISTIANITY.  169 

merely,  but  spiritual  life.  Christian  morality  is  an 
affectionate  loyalty  to  Him  who,  besides  that  he  is 
our  rightful  sovereign,  has  acquired  every  claim  to 
our  duty  and  affection  by  having  exchanged  posi- 
tions with  us,  when  we  were  "  without  help,"  and 
under  condemnation. 

Unless  we  had  been  guilty  and  helpless,  no  such 
intervention  as  that  which  the  Christian  scheme 
supposes,  could  have  had  place.  But  if  the  ruin 
of  man,  and  his  recovery  by  the  personal  interven- 
tion of  the  divine  Saviour  be  both  true,  then  must 
it  be  granted  that  thenceforward  genuine  Chris- 
tian virtue,  while  it  is  deepened  and  chastised  by 
a  recollection  of  the  misery  whence  we  have  been 
rescued,  is  warmed,  and  receives  a  boundless  im- 
pulse from  an  affection,  directed  with  the  distinct- 
ness of  personal  love,  toward  the  Saviour,  and  who 
is  now  become,  by  every  title,  the  sovereign  of  the 
heart. 

By  the  most  direct  inference,  the  one  motive  of 
affectionate  loyalty,  and  a  humble  expectation  of 
winning  the  approval  of  Him  who  is  supreme  in 
our  regards,  must  be  held  sufficient  to  sustain  our 
constancy  in  any  service,  which  that  Sovereign  is 
known  to  approve,  or  which  we  believe  will  be  gra- 
ciously accepted  by  Him  at  our  hands.  And  not 
only  services,  but  sufferings  "  for  Christ's  sake," 
even  to  the  endurance  of  fiery  trials,  and  death,  have 
15 


170  ON     SPIRITUAL 

often,  from  the  same  motive,  been  stripped  of  their 
terrors. 

What  more  then  can  we  need  in  behalf  of  the1 
most  comprehensive,  or  of  the  most  refined  scheme 
of  morals,  than  is  fully  secured  by  this  motive  of 
loyalty  to  a  sovereign — such  as  is  the  Saviour  of 
the  world  ? 

From  the  evangelic  history  is  drawn  the  IDEA  of 
all  that  is  beautiful  in  virtue  ;  and  from  the  precep- 
tive parts  of  the  Scriptures  the  explicit  rules  of 
morality ;  and  from  the  doctrinal  parts,  the  impul- 
sive principle  of  affectionate  obedience.  With  a 
system  of  ethics,  itself  faultless  as  a  definite  rule, 
may  it  not  be  affirmed,  that  a  loving  loyalty  to  such 
sovereign,  at  once  Teacher  and  Saviour,  embraces 
every  motive  that  can  tend  to  secure  a  correspond- 
ent moral  harmony  and  completeness,  in  the  conduct 
and  temper  of  his  subjects  and  disciples  ?  The 
Christian  ethics,  thus  made  to  relate  to  the  personal 
character  and  will  of  Christ,  has  in  a  high  degree 
that  concentration  and  oneness  of  motive,  which  is 
needed  to  give  force  and  simplicity  to  virtue.  A 
generous  animation,  and  a  tender  affection,  a  well 
defined  personal  sentiment,  fixed  on  one  whose  own 
moral  elevation  leaves  nothing  that  is  great,  pure, 
or  beautiful,  to  be  added  to  it  or  even  imagined, 
give  to  Christian  morality  a  power  and  warmth,  to 
which  no  other  system  makes  any  approach. 


CHRISTIANITY.  171 

The  simplest  possible  test  may  be  applied  to  the 
motive  and  rule  of  Christian  morality  as  thus  stated. 
Let  any  one,  after  furnishing  his  mind  with  a  dis- 
tinct conception  of  the  personal  character  of  Christ, 
compel  himself  to  bring  his  own  conduct,  disposi- 
tions, and  converse,  throughout  any  one  day,  to  this 
gauge,  namely,  its  supposed  conformity,  in  prin- 
ciple, with  what  we  may  call  the  style  of  our  Lord's 
behaviour.  This  criterion  will  be  found  to  reach  to 
the  extent  of  the  most  arduous  and  unusual  duties, 
as  well  as  to  fit  the  most  ordinary.  If  we  are  com- 
pelled to  grant  that  the  application  of  such  a  test 
would  carry  us  forward  always  toward  whatever 
is  pure,  and  just,  and  kind,  have  we  not  virtually 
granted  that  Christianity  is  divine  ? 

What  then  remains  is  to  give  impulse  to  the  rule 
we  acknowledge  to  be  good.  And  this  must  be  by 
admitting  into  the  heart,  in  all  its  power,  that  faith 
which  connects  the  soul  with  the  Saviour,  by  the 
vital  agency  of  the  Spirit  of  grace.  Then  it  is  that 
abstract  virtue  becomes  embodied,  and  lives.  The 
office  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  we  learn  by  the  apos- 
tolic word  is — "  to  take  of  the  things  of  Christ" — 
whatever  is  his  distinctively,  and  "  to  reveal  them 
to  us."  In  other  words,  to  expand  the  divine  pat- 
tern of  all  perfection  before  our  contracted  faculties, 
part  by  part,  as  we  are  able  to  receive  it ; — to  con- 
vey to  us  the  lesson  of  perfection,  in  morsels,  and 


172  ON     SPIRITUAL 

to  render  us,  by  a  gradual  process  of  assimilation, 
"  new  creatures  in  Christ  Jesus." 

But  this  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has  its  own 
peculiar  tendency  to  promote  the  purification  of  the 
heart.  How  impressive  is  the  apostolic  appeal  to 
Christians,  "What !  know  ye  not  that  your  bodies 
are  the  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  dwelleth 
in  you  ?"  and  again,  the  injunction  not  "  to  grieve  the 
Holy  Spirit."  It  is  when  Christianity  is  spiritually 
understood,  and  when  whatever  tends  to  substitute 
symbols  for  realities  is  rejected,  that  a  trinitarian 
faith  is  brought  to  bear  with  effect  upon  the  under- 
standing, the  heart  and  the  life.  If  this  faith  be 
doubtingly  or  distrustfully  held,  is  it  any  wonder 
that  it  is  found  to  be  ineffective  ?  or  if  it  be  held  in 
conjunction  with  notions  which  either  oppress  the 
heart,  or  which  favour  the  propensity  to  rest  in  for- 
malities, then  ought  we  to  suppose  it  can  exhibit  its 
proper  influence  ? 

But  we  are  speaking  of  a  spiritual  and  cordial 
trinitarian  faith,  and  then  we  affirm  it  to  be  the 
basis  of  the  only  virtue  which  deserves  the  name — a 
serious,  reverential,  happy,  and  affectionate  devo- 
tion of  the  whole  nature  to  God  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit.  Christian  virtue  is  the  habit, 
the  motive,  and  the  act  of  the  soul  meditating  upon 
"  the  love  of  God,"  and  "  the  grace  of  the  Lord 


CHRISTIANITY.  173 

Jesus,"  and  enjoying  "  the  communion  of  the  Holy 
Spirit." 

Let  it  be  remarked,  that  apostolic  trinitarian  doc- 
trine— so  utterly  unlike  the  crabbed  definitions  of  a 
wrangling  and  unevangelic  age,  brings  the  inscruta- 
ble mystery  of  the  divine  nature  to  bear  immediately 
upon  the  affections,  under  an  aspect  of  pleasurable 
emotion.  How  little  has  this  been  regarded  by 
angry  disputants  ! — How  grievously  have  those  mis- 
understood apostolic  orthodoxy,  who  have  pursued 
each  other  to  the  death,  because  not  consenting  to 
the  same  jargon  as  themselves  !  We  cannot  too 
attentively  regard  the  apostolic  method  of  teaching 
this  great  truth — of  shedding  it  into  the  heart.  Our 
CREED,  if  derived  from  the  Scriptures,  speaks  to 
us  of  "  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  of 
the  love  of  God,  and  of  the  communion  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  This  is  the  orthodoxy  which,  when  cor- 
dially entertained,  impels  Christians  to  love  each 
other  and  all  men,  and  to  abound  in  good  works, 
at  sacrifices  and  offerings,  with  which  "  God  is  well 
pleased." 

But  it  is  reasonably  asked — if  such  be  the  in- 
tensity and  excellence  of  the  motives  which  you 
affirm  to  spring  from  an  evangelic  faith,  how  do 
you  explain  the  frequent  and  lamentable  instances 
in  which  those  who  adopt  these  motives,  and  talk 
of  them  perpetually,  are  found  wanting  in  the  first 
15* 


174  ON     SPIRITUAL 

duties  of  morality,  and  guilty  even  of  outraging  its 
plainest  requirements  ?  Nothing  is  more  simple  ; 
such  persons,  and  the  number  of  such  is  never  small, 
and  in  times  of  formality  or  of  controversial  agita- 
tion, like  the  present,  it  will  be  large — such  per- 
sons, unhappily,  while  they  have  surrendered  their 
hold  of  the  common,  or  as  they  would  term  them, 
of  the  worldly  and  unevangelic  motives  of  virtue, 
are  very  far  from  having  come  into  any  real  com- 
munion with  those  motives  of  which  they  so  fluent- 
ly speak.  They  are  in  fact  unprovided  with  any 
efficacious  motives  of  conduct ;  and  they  fall,  while 
those  less  doctrinally  enlightened  than  themselves, 
stand  :  they  are,  in  fact,  the  easiest  of  all  the  vic- 
tims of  temptation  : — if  the  first  assault  upon  virtue 
be  repelled  from  fear  of  shame,  or  from  mere  habit ; 
•—the  second,  or  the  third,  prevails  over  the  feeble 
resistance  of  a  mortality  which  has  no  basis,  and 
no  vitality.  But  when  we  speak  of  the  efficacy  of 
the  principles  of  Christian  morals,  we  must  mean, 
assuredly,  nothing  less  than  the  actual  possession 
of  that  motive,  which  we  affirm  to  be  the  impulse 
of  all  virtue.  A  thousand  instances  of  failure  and 
delinquency,  among  the  professors  of  evangelic  prin- 
ciples, prove  only  that  the  profession  was  all  that 
had  been  attained  by  the  individual. 

It  is  manifest  that  a  principle  of  morals  so  specific 
and  peculiar  as  the  one  we  have  named,  cannot  exist 


CHRISTIANITY.  175 

in  power  apart  from  a  clear  recognition  of  that  prime 
truth  of  Christianity  whence  immediately  it  springs. 
Any  doctrine,  therefore,  the  tendency  of  which  is 
to  throw  obscurity  upon  this  first  article  of  belief 
—  Justification  through   faith   in   the   propitiatory 
work  of  Christ ;    or   any  religious   practice2   the 
effect  of  which  is  to  mingle  what  is  human  with 
what  is  divine,  in  the  matter  of  our  acceptance 
with  God,  must  operate,  so  far,  to  chill  the  reli- 
gious affections,  and  to  bring  Christian  morality, 
in  the  same  proportion,  down  to  the  level  of  that 
morality  which  is  unchristian — whether  philosophic, 
or  superstitious.     It  is  on  this  ground,  therefore, 
that  we  claim,  without  hesitation,  the  ethical  beauty 
of  Christianity,  as  proper  and  peculiar  to  an  evan- 
gelic faith  ;   because  every   element  of  Christian 
virtue  bears  relation  to  a  correspondent  element  of 
Christian  doctrine  ;  and  whatever  darkens  the  one, 
enfeebles  the  other. 

A  motive  of  virtue,  so  far  as  it  may  be  peculiar, 
will  express  itself  in  its  own  manner.  The  results 
of  two  motives,  themselves  differing  greatly,  will 
not  be  the  same.  Now  the  Christian  morality, 
specified  as  such  in  the  New  Testament,  has  this 
very  peculiarity,  which  we  should  look  for,  if 
indeed  its  principle  be  the  one  we  have  named. 
Most  remarkable  is  it,  that  though  our  Lord,  before 
his  having  accomplished  the  work  of  redemption, 


176  ON      SPIRITUAL 

refers  but  incidentally  to  the  great  evangelic  truth 
which  was  to  be  ratified  by  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion ;  yet  precludes  all  misunderstanding  as  to  the 
principle  of  the  system  of  morals  which  he  was 
giving  to  the  world,  by  very  clearly  resting  the 
validity  or  acceptableness  of  even  the  most  ordinary 
act  of  kindness  or  humanity,  on  the  fact  of  its  having 
been  performed  from  a  motive  of  affection  toward 
himself ;  and  by  declaring  that  he  regards  any  want 
of  sympathy  toward  his  suffering  members,  in  this 
peculiar  light,  as  being  an  affront  to  himself. 

As  is  the  principle  of  virtue,  so  are  its  expres- 
sions. All  benevolence  toward  mankind  at  large,  if 
it  be  Christian  benevolence,  is  the  love  of  man,  for 
Christ's  sake,  even  as  of  those  who  are  redeemed 
by  his  precious  blood.  Can  it  be  doubted  then  that 
the  Christian's  affection  toward  his  Christian  breth- 
ren must  have  the  same  peculiarity,  and  possess  it 
in  the  most  decisive  manner  ;  or  that  any  want  of 
this  specific  affection,  or  any  backwardness  in  the 
expression  of  it,  toward  Christ's  disciples,  is  a 
grave  fault,  a  fault  rendering  very  ambiguous,  to 
say  the  best,  our  personal  Christianity  ? 

And  now  let  us  remember  that  although  Chris- 
tianity be  a  religion  of  principles  rather  than  of  pre- 
cepts— yet  it  has  its  precepts  ; — it  has  a  law — a  law 
summarily  containing  all  law — the  royal  law  of  love, 
and  of  love  among  Christians,  as  such.  "  If  any 


CHRISTIANITY.  177 

man  love  God,  let  him  love  his  brother  also." 
"This  is  my  command,"  said  the  Saviour — a  com- 
mand given  before  his  sufferings,  and  issued  anew 
from  his  throne  in  the  heavens,  "  that  ye  love  one 
another." 

He  who  abstained  from  prohibiting  some  things 
which  we  cannot  doubt  he  intended  to  exclude  from 
his  church,  and  who  left  many  things  unsaid  which 
we  are  forward  to  put  into  his  lips,  He  has  said — - 
That  those  who  are  wanting  in  love  to  their  Chris- 
tian brethren  are  not  to  be  accounted  his  disciples. 

Under  every  code  of  law  and  system  of  morals, 
however  well  defined  it  may  be  in  its  principles,  or 
skilfully  expounded  in  its  particular  applications, 
occasions  must  frequently  be  presented,  by  the  ever- 
varying  aspects  of  human  affairs,  in  which  some 
single  enactment  seems  to  contravene  another ;  or  in 
which  a  general  principle  of  law  is  apparently  inter- 
cepted in  its  operation  by  some  positive  prohibition. 
Now  this  being  an  inconvenience  to  which  every 
institution  wherein  man  acts  a  part  must  be  liable, 
a  universal  necessity  arises  for  admitting  a  rule  of 
adaptation,  by  the  aid  of  which  the  social  machine 
may  be  exempted  from  ruinous  collisions  of  part 
with  part.  Such  a  rule  must  have  respect  to  the 
manifest  intention,  or  the  spirit,  of  the  code  or  insti- 
tution, considered  as  a  whole  ;  or  to  the  known  and 


178  ON    SPIRITUAL 

recorded  mind  of  the  legislator ;  or  to  some  broad 
principle  of  expediency. 

In  any  such  instance  it  is  to  be  assumed  that 
some  things  are  of  supreme  importance ;  while 
some  are  important  relatively  only,  or  conditionally  ; 
and  that  whatever  comes  under  this  latter  descrip- 
tion should  give  way,  rather  than  that  a  sovereign 
axiom,  or  an  absolute  and  wide-extending  precept 
should  be  dishonoured. 

The  application  of  these  unquestionable  princi- 
ples to  the  Christian  Institute,  and  to  the  conduct  of 
Christians,  one  toward  another,  is  obvious.  The 
law  of  Christ,  which  enjoins  his  followers  first  to 
love  each  other  fervently,  and  without  reserve  or 
disguise  ;  and  then  to  recognise  each  other  as  Chris- 
tians, and  to  abide  in  communion  one  with  another, 
is  the  most  explicit  of  all  his  commands  ; — it  is  the 
law  the  most  solemnly  promulgated  ;  it  is  the  law 
that  is  reiterated  oftener  than  any  other. — It  is  a  law 
announced  as  a  universal  rule  of  the  Christian  insti- 
tute ;  and  therefore  always  to  be  respected,  rather 
than  any  enactment,  less  comprehensive,  which 
may  at  any  time  seem  to  clash  with  it. 

Moreover  this  law,  not  only  of  love,  but  of  com- 
munion, or  of  visible  fellowship,  is  declared  to  be 
the  one  CHARACTERISTIC  of  the  Christian  institute  ; 
and  submission  to  it  is  made  the  condition  at  once  of 
Christ's  promised  presence  with  his  church,  and  of 


CHRISTIANITY.  179 

the  conversion  of  the  world  by  the  means  of  the 
church. 

Ought  not  those  then  to  look  well  to  the  course 
they  are  pursuing,  who,  on  the  plea  of  a  conscientious 
regard  to  some  special  enactment,  or  of  the  adhe- 
rence to  some  institution  which,  at  the  most,  is  but 
a  means  to  an  end,  are,  and  in  a  deliberate  manner, 
putting  contempt  upon  Christ's  first  Law — his  uni- 
versal and  sovereign  will ;  and  on  such  ground  are 
either  refusing  to  recognise  and  to  consort  with 
other  Christians  ;  or  are  even  denying  the  very 
name  to  those  whose  only  alleged  fault  is  their 
error  (if  it  be  an  error)  on  the  particular  in  ques- 
tion? 

Whoever  it  is  that  pursues  such  a  course,  we 
cannot  hesitate  to  speak  of  it  as  in  the  highest  de- 
gree culpable  and  perilous.  It  is  the  fault  of  these, 
our  times ; — a  fault  from  which,  however,  multi- 
tudes of  Christians  individually  stand  clear,  by  the 
warmth  and  expansiveness  of  their  personal  senti- 
ments, and  the  (genuine)  liberality  of  their  modes 
of  action.  But  as  to  communities,  not  one  can  well 
claim  exemption  from  some  blame  on  this  behalf. 

But  if  the  most  absolute  of  Christ's  laws  be  pub- 
licly dishonoured  by  Christian  bodies ;  and  if,  in 
the  eye  of  the  world,  the  mark  of  unity  and  love  be 
wanting,  the  serious  question  presents  itself,  Wheth- 
er it  may  be  allowable  to  claim  for  any  body  of 


180  ON     SPIRITUAL 

Christians,  as  such,  the  praise  of  possessing  and  of 
"holding  forth"  that  Spiritual  Christianity  of  which 
we  are  speaking  ? 

We  shall  excuse  ourselves  from  the  task  of  dis- 
tinctly replying  to  so  weighty  a  question — content 
to  know  that,  in  whatever  way  it  might  be  answered 
by  the  champions  of  parties,  Christ's  law  of  love  is 
in  fact  cordially  accepted,  and  visibly  honoured  too, 
by  no  small  number  of  individual  Christians,  within 
each  department  of  the  orthodox  and  evangelic  com- 
monwealth. Even  if  the  visible,  or  ecclesiastical 
condition  of  the  Christian  community  be  not  aus- 
picious, happily  its  interior  condition  (as  we  fully 
believe)  is  of  a  far  more  cheering  character  :  and  is 
such  as  may  safely  be  held  to  indicate  the  approach 
of  a  better  exterior,  as  well  as  interior  mode  of  com- 
bination. 

A  decisive  improvement  of  this  sort,  or  a  reno- 
vation of  the  visible,  as  well  as  of  the  interior  con- 
.dition  of  the  Christian  body,  giving  open  honour  to 
Christ's  great  command,  is  what  remains  to  be  ex- 
pected as  the  final  development  of  the  energies  of 
the  Gospel ;  and  which  must  precede,  and  would 
bring  in,  its  general  triumph  in  the  world. 

To  have  undertaken  to  speak  of  the  ethical  char- 
acteristics of  Spiritual  Christianity  with  an  inten- 
tion to  abstain  from  all  allusion  to  that  great  charac- 
teristic of  Christian  morals — Christian  love,  would 


CHRISTIANITY.  181 

have  been  to  compromise  momentous  truths  in  a 
most  culpable  manner.  Or  to  have  brought  forward 
this  leading  subject,  yet  with  a  timid  determination 
to  be  blind  and  deaf  as  to  what  is  passing  around 
us  ;  and  by  all  means  to  avoid  the  peril  of  offending 
any  prejudices,  would  have  been  to  put  to  shame 
the  profession  we  have  more  than  once  made  of 
independence  and  conscientious  impartiality. 

But  it  would  have  been  in  a  very  peculiar  sense 
blameworthy  to  adopt  any  such  temporizing  rule  of 
discretion  in  the  present  instance,  when  the  task 
which  wre  are  engaged  to  attempt,  is, — to  exhibit 
the  glory  and  beauty  of  Christianity  as  it  is  found 
in  the  inspired  writings  ; — not  as  it  may  happen  to 
be  represented,  at  a  particular  time,  by  this  or  that 
community.  Moreover  we  are  to  perform  this  task 
with  an  especial  view  to  the  feelings  and  opinions 
of  those  who  are  presumed  not  hitherto  to  have  so 
fully  considered  the  momentous  subject  of  the  divine 
origin  of  the  Gospel,  as  would  give  it  its  due  influ- 
ence over  their  convictions. 

Now  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  with  very  many 
persons  of  this  class — intelligent,  observant,  and 
candid,  who  yet  are  not  intimately  acquainted,  and 
perhaps  not  in  any  degree  acquainted  with  the  per- 
sonal sentiments  of  Christian  people,  the  scandal  of 
those  religious  dissensions  which  of  late  have  be- 
come so  obtrusive,  operates  to  excuse  them  to  them- 
16 


182  ON    SPIRITUAL 

selves  from  the  duty  of  seriously  considering  the 
claims  of  the  Gospel.  If  we  could  only  bring  to 
view  the  secret  causes  of  that  infidelity  which  it  is 
to  be  feared,  prevails  among  the  educated  classes, 
this  now  named — the  scandal  arising  from  religious 
dissensions,  would  probably  appear  to  be  one  of  the 
most  frequent  and  determinative. 

The  advocates  of  Christianity  are  no  doubt  enti- 
tled to  the  argument  they  so  often  resort  to,  in  their 
controversy  with  its  opponents,  when  they  affirm 
that  the  religion  of  Christ  is  rejected  because  it  re- 
proves a  vicious  course  of  life.  This  is  true,  but  it 
is  only  a  partial  truth  ;  and  it  would  be  well  if, 
whenever  it  is  advanced,  a  candid  acknowledgment 
were  made  of  the  unquestionable  fact,  that  it  is  the 
"  envy,  wrath,  strife,  malice,"  and  ambition,  seen 
to  attach  to  religious  bodies,  quite  as  much  as  the 
pride,  or  covetousness,  or  sensuality  harbouring  in 
the  bosom  of  the  infidel,  that  prevent  his  submission 
to  an  argument  which  he  finds  himself  unable  logi- 
cally to  refute. 

Such  persons — we  mean  the  intelligent,  observ- 
ant, and  candid,  who  hold  out  against  the  Christian 
evidences  on  the  plea  of  the  unseemly  discords  of 
professed  Christians,  are  invited  to  take  a  wider 
grasp  of  this  particular  subject. 

Let  such  persons  maturely  consider,  first,  the 
obvious  fact  that  Christianity  itself  condemns  as 


CHRISTIANITY.  183 

decisively  the  evil  tempers  generated  by  religious 
disagreements,  as  it  condemns  any  other  immorali- 
ties :  clearly  itself  is  a  religion  of  love  and  meek- 
ness ;  and  moreover  it  contains  (however  little  they 
have  hitherto  been  regarded)  sufficient  and  very 
precise  provisions,  securing  to  Christians  liberty  of 
conscience,  while  cordial  fellowship  is  not  disturbed. 
The  religion  of  Christ  should  therefore  bear  none 
of  the  blame  accruing  from  religious  strifes. 

But  the  persons  now  intended  are  especially  re- 
quested to  give  attention  to  those  views  of  Chris- 
tian history  which  have  several  times  been  referred 
to  in  the  course  of  these  Lectures. — Church  history 
is  the  story  of  the  perpetually  renewed  struggles  of 
Truth,  Justice,  Purity,  Love,  not  merely  with  the  bad 
passions  of  men  individually,  not  merely  with  false 
and  immoral  principles,  in  the  abstract ;  but  with 
the  definite  and  visible  forms  under  which  those  bad 
passions,  or  these  immoral  principles  have,  from 
time  to  time,  appeared,  as  digested  and  conven- 
tional evils,  attaching  to  the  social  system. 

With  several  of  these  prescriptive  mischiefs 
Christianity  has  wrestled,  and  has  prevailed  over 
them  ;  nor  ever  again,  probably,  shall  it  meet  these 
its  antagonists,  erect.  With  some  others — slavery 
for  instance,  and  the  hateful  prejudice  of  colour,  it 
is  now,  and  before  our  eyes  contending,  nor  can 
any  who  have  attentively  watched  its  preceding  vie- 


184  ON     SPIRITUAL 

tories  over  the  most  formidable  and  deeply  in- 
trenched evils,  doubt  what  must  be  the  issue  of  the 
contest  which  is  now  in  progress. 

We  come  then  to  our  immediate  subject.  It  is 
clear  that,  unless  the  natural  course  of  human 
affairs  were  miraculously  diverted  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  unless  a  direct  administration  of  whatever 
relates  to  religion,  by  Heaven's  infallible  agents — 
such  as  the  papal  system  assumes  for  itself,  were 
supposed — the  conservation  of  dogmatic  truth,  and 
the  clear  definition  of  it,  in  all  its  details,  could  not 
well  be  secured  otherwise  than  by  the  free  opposi- 
tions of  minds  differently  constituted,  and  differently 
schooled ;  and  by  the  unchecked  collisions  of  bodies, 
independent  and  separately  powerful.  Truth  has 
miserably  suffered  whenever  such  oppositions  and 
collisions  have  been  successfully  prevented  by  the 
hand  of  despotic  spirtual  power.  Absolutely  ex- 
cluded they  have  never  been,  nor  can  be  ;  but  they 
go  on  with  little  advantage  to  truth,  and  with  incal- 
culable damage  to  the  social  system,  and  with  great 
disturbance  to  civil  affairs,  when  the  two  contend- 
ing parties  are  in  the  relative  positions  of  tyrants 
and  martyrs.  Who  can  wish  this  inevitable  con- 
'flict,  by  which  truth  is  conserved,  to  be  maintained 
under  conditions  so  terrible,  so  precarious,  and  so 
costly  ? 

But  the  other  form  of  this  contest  is  that  which 
attaches  to  the  present  condition  of  civil  society 


CHRISTIANITY.  185 

and  under  which  the  deep  religious  convictions  of 
minds,  diversely  constituted,  and  more  diversely 
trained,  are  suffered  to  work  and  to  heave,  exempt- 
ed from  any  external  restraints.  This  then  is  the 
dispensation  through  which  we  are  now  passing  ; — 
a  dispensation  indeed  of  peculiar  trial  to  the  con- 
stancy and  temper  of  Christian  men,  as  well  as  of 
sad  scandal  toward  the  irreligious  many.  Yet  it  is 
to  a  great  extent,  as  we  have  said,  remedied,  or  its 
ill  effects  obviated,  by  the  individual  piety  and  de- 
vout sentiments  of  multitudes  of  private  Christians. 
These  individuals  are  so  many,  and  the  feeling 
among  them  so  decisively  tends  toward  a  happier 
condition  which  should  allow  of  an  unintercepted 
fellowship  of  love,  that  the  actual  approach  of  it 
seems  to  be  more  than  dimly  indicated. 

The  season  of  unrestrained  dissension,  with  all 
its  evils,  when  it  shall  have  had  its  time  and  ful- 
filled its  purpose,  in  the  elucidation  and  establish- 
ment of  dogmatic  truth,  shall  pass  away,  and  the 
great  and  characteristic  principle  of  the  Gospel — its 
law  of  love,  shall  then — just  as  the  other  moral 
energies  of  the  same  Gospel  have  successively  ex- 
panded their  forces,  and  have  triumphed — triumph 
also  itself,  as  well  in  the  bosoms  of  Christians  in- 
dividually, as  in  the  Christian  commonwealth,  and 
visibly  exhibit  on  earth  the  pattern  of  the  order  and 
unity  of  heaven. 
16* 


FOURTH    LE  CTURE 


SPIRITUAL  CHRISTIANITY  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  AT  THE 
PRESENT  MOMENT. 


THE  FOURTH  LECTURE. 


WHILE  showing,  as  we  propose  now  to  do,  that 
the  principles  of  Spiritual  Christianity,  Doctrinal 
and  Ethical,  and  which  have  been  advanced  in  the 
preceding  Lectures,  furnish  the  ground  of  a  bright 
hope  of  a  much  improved  moral  condition  of  the 
human  family,  we  shall  carefully  abstain  from  rest- 
ing our  argument  upon  questionable  anticipations  of 
any  kind,  whether  political,  philosophical,  or  such  as 
might  be  derived  from  interpretations  of  unfulfilled 
Scripture  prophecies. 

What  we  now  propose  is  very  simple,  and  our 
argument  is  direct,  and  our  conclusions  scarcely  to 
be  disputed,  if  only  those  principles  are  granted  to 
be  true,  which  already  we  have  insisted  upon  as 
sufficiently  established. 

We  take  up  then,  in  turn,  three  or  four  of  those 
elements  of  Spiritual  Christianity  which  attach  to  it 
as  an  impulse  of  action ;  and  after  briefly  exhibiting 
each,  in  its  connexion  with  the  truths  whence  it 


190  ON     SPIRITUAL 

springs,  shall  ask  whether,  supposing  such  motives 
or  principles  powerfully  to  affect  the  hearts  of  Chris- 
tians, throughout  a  community,  they  would  not  afford 
a  ground  of  the  very  happiest  anticipations  which 
the  philanthropist  can  entertain  for  the  world  at 
large  ? 

We  shall  advance  into  the  midst  of  our  argument, 
after  briefly  adverting  to  two  subjects,  directly  relat- 
ed to  it,  and  which  at  the  present  moment  are  of 
urgent  importance.  The  first  of  these  is  the  slender 
and  very  questionable  value  of  any  other  hope  than 
that  which  Christianity  furnishes,  of  seeing  the  wel- 
fare of  the  human  family  materially  promoted,  either 
in  a  physical  or  a  moral  sense. 

Does  it  appear  that  Civilization  alone,  with  its 
intercourse  and  trafic — its  arts,  and  its  "useful" 
sciences — its  town-crowding  industry,  and  its  disor- 
derly peopling  of  wildernesses — its  hurry,  and  im- 
patience of  restraint  —its  intensity  of  individual  will, 
and  its  contempt  of  authority — its  uncontrollable 
sway  of  the  masses — its  unlooked-for  upturns  and 
reverses — its  passionate  pursuit  of  momentary  ad- 
vantages, and  its  appetite  for  such  gratifications  as 
may  be  snatched  in  all  haste  ; — does  it  appear  that 
civilization  alone  (Christian  influence  not  consider- 
ed) is  likely  much  to  promote  the  personal  and  home- 
felicity  of  the  millions  it  is  summoning  into  life  ? — 
Judging  of  what  is  future,  from  what  we  see 


CHRISTIANITY.  191 

around  us,  dare  we  look  to  mere  civilization  as  wor- 
thy to  be  trusted  with  the  moral,  or  even  with  the 
physical  well-being  of  the  human  family  ;  and  with 
the  guardianship  of  the  generation  next  coming  up  ? 
— Dare  we,  if  we  had  the  infant  human  race  in  our 
arms— dare  we  turn  ourselves  to  that  care-worn 
personage,  our  modern  Civilization,  sitting  at  her 
factory  gate,  and  say  to  her — "  Take  this  child,  and 
nurse  it  for  me  ?" 

It  is  indeed  by  no  means  easy,  either  to  define  cor- 
rectly what  we  mean  by  civilization,  a  term  vaguely 
embracing  a  vast  assemblage  of  heterogeneous 
elements  ; — or  completely  to  sever,  in  our  minds,  the 
notion  of  mere  civilization,  from  that  of  those  moral 
and  religious  influences  which,  in  fact,  are,  in  this 
country,  so  intimately  blended  with  every  thing 
around  us. 

The  nearest  approach,  perhaps,  which  we  could 
make  to  a  distinct  conception  of  what  civilization  is, 
as  severed  from  all  Christian  influences,  would  be 
effected  by  going  into  the  heart  of  some  of  the  con- 
tinental communities  ; — might  we,  without  offence, 
say  France,  where,  while  all  the  elements  of  national 
improvement,  in  wealth,  science,  literature,  refine- 
ment, are  in  high  activity,  the  concomitant  influence 
of  Christianity,  though  not  absolutely  wanting,  is 
reduced  to  the  smallest  dimensions  imaginable,  if  it 
is  to  exist  at  all. 


192  ON     SPIRITUAL 

In  looking  then  to  mere  civilization  as  exhibited  in 
a  country  like  France,  we  must  affirm  that  the  issue 
of  the  social  movement,  considered  as  tending  to 
promote  the  personal  and  domestic  well-being  of 
the  mass  of  the  people,  is  altogether  ambiguous,  and 
such  as  may  give  ground,  with  an  equal  appearance 
of  reason,  to  the  darkest,  as  to  the  brightest  antici- 
pations. And  then  if  we  were  to  look  to  such  a 
country  as  a  centre  of  benevolent  endeavours  for  the 
diffusion  of  happiness  through  the  world,  could  we 
name  any  definite  grounds  of  hope,  whatever,  in 
this  respect  ?  Or  is  it  not  nearly  as  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  light,  truth,  peace,  humanity,  should 
emanate  from  China,  as  from  France,  and  thence 
cover  the  earth  ? 

In  referring  to  this  particular  instance,  we  are 
influenced  by  no  national  prejudice ;  and  in  truth 
would  entertain  the  hope  that  France,  admitting  at 
length  Christian  Truth,  may  yet  awake,  to  run 
abreast  with  England — as  in  wealth,  philosophy, 
literature,  so  in  the  enlightened  labours  of  universal 
philanthropy.  But  if  so,  it  will  not  be  as  a  civilized, 
but  as  a  Christianized  country,  that  she  will  do  it. 

Mere  Civilization  is  too  likely  to  ally  herself  to 
that  atheistic  and  sensual  philosophy  which  com- 
ports so  well  with  the  temper  and  aims  of  a  commer- 
cial people.  We  mean  the  philosophy  which  regards 
man  simply  as  one  of  the  mammalia,  and  as  distin- 


CHRISTIANITY.  193 

guished  from  others  of  his  order  only  by  a  loftier 
facial  angle,  by  some  ounces  more  of  the  cerebral 
mass,  by  the  jointing  of  his  thumb,  and  by  the  pos- 
session of  a  heel  bone.  But  how  is  such  a  union — 
such  a  conspiracy,  to  be  deprecated !  Too  soon 
might  busy  Civilization,  bent  on  gain,  take  Animal 
Philosophy  into  her  establishment,  as  the  most  com- 
pliant and  serviceable  of  her  creatures ;  and  this 
shrewd  minion,  teaching  her  mistress  to  blush  at  no 
well  calculated  and  undoubtedly  profitable  cruelty, 
would  undertake  to  prove  that  those  who  draw  prizes 
in  the  lottery  of  life  are  unwise  if  they  spoil  their 
peace  by  any  compunctious  sympathies  toward  the 
less  fortunate  millions  of  the  species. 

If  we  imagine  all  Christian  feeling  and  Christian 
truth  to  be  withdrawn,  the  present  is  a  time  of  high 
intensity  indeed,  in  the  social  system  ;  but  of  very 
low  moral  temperature ;  nor  can  we  confide  in  any 
disposition  which  is  the  proper  growth  of  such  a 
time,  as  an  impulse  of  benevolence,  or  as  affording 
any  ground  of  hope  for  the  melioration  of  the  lot  of 
man. 

But  we  turn  to  the  second  of  those  subjects  which 
we  mentioned  as  incidental  to  our  argument.  This 
is  the  altogether  peculiar  position  which  we,  the 
people  of  England,  at  this  passing  moment  occupy, 
in  relation  to  the  human  family.  Has  not  the  part 
of  an  Elder  Brother  of  this  great  family  actually 
17 


194  ON     SPIRITUAL 

fallen  upon  the  English  race  ?  and  have  not  the  soli- 
citudes of  such  a  relationship  actually  become  ours  ? 
Are  we  not  by  many  interests,  and  by  motives  higher 
than  any  interests,  compelled,  in  some  measure,  nay 
to  a  great  extent,  to  think  for  all,  to  care  for  all,  to 
defend  the  weak,  to  forefend  the  strong ;  and  is  there 
not  now  pervading  the  people  of  this  country,  even 
as  a  temper  which  has  become  characteristically 
British,  a  kindly  sympathy  in  what  affects  the  wel- 
fare of  each  race  of  the  human  family ; — such  a 
feeling,  at  least,  as  has  never  belonged  to  any  other 
people,  in  any  age  ?  If  many  partake  not  at  all  of 
any  such  feeling,  they  are  fewer  than  those  who  are 
alive  to  it  in  a  good  degree. 

With  all  the  paths  of  the  world  now  mapped  be- 
fore us,  and  with  means  of  communication  which, 
for  practical  ends,  condense  the  population  of  the 
earth,  as  if  the  thousand  millions  were  crowded  upon 
a  ball  of  one  third  the  diameter ;  and  with  actual 
colonial  possession  of  a  large  portion  of  the  earth, 
and  with  moral  possession,  by  high  character  and 
repute,  of  almost  the  whole  of  it ;  and  with  all  these 
uncalculated  and  untried  means  of  influence  now 
ripened,  and  presented  afresh  to  our  hands,  who  is  it 
that  can  altogether  control  those  mingling  emotions 
of  patriotism  and  of  expansive  benevolence,  which 
become  us,  occupying  as  we  do  a  position  whence 


CHRISTIANITY.  195 

we  may  go  forth  to  conquer  the  world,  not  for  am- 
bition, not  for  wealth ;  but  for  Truth  and  Peace  ! 

And  as  we  do  stand  in  this  position,  and  as  we  do, 
in  so  great  a  measure,  entertain  the  feelings  proper 
to  it ;  so  is  there  a  reciprocity  of  feeling  widely  dif- 
fused among  the  nations. — British  political  influence 
or  national  supremacy  apart,  the  British  feeling — 
its  honour,  its  justice,  and  its  humanity,  are  in  fact 
understood  in  the  remotest  regions,  and  are  trusted 
to  by  tribes  whose  names  we  have  not  yet  learned 
to  pronounce.  The  several  designations  by  which 
English  benevolence,  in  its  various  forms  styles 
itself,  have,  as  watch-words  of  hope,  traversed  the 
ocean,  and  have  pervaded  wildernesses  ;  and  these 
titles  of  our  organized  philanthropy  have  already 
wakened  the  dull  ear  of  half-civilized  continents,  and 
are  reverberated  from  the  hill-sides  of  the  remotest 
barbarism. 

It  is  true  that  England  is  looked  to,  as  the  helper, 
guardian,  guide,  of  the  nations.  And  assuredly  it  is 
the  CHRISTIANITY  of  England  which  gives  depth, 
substance,  life,  to  her  repute  through  the  world,  as 
the  lover  of  justice,  and  the  mover  of  good. 

But  whatever  England  may  yet  do,  or  may  fail 
to  do,  for  the  world  ;  it  is  to  Christianity  itself  that 
we  look  as  containing  the  only  impelling  motives 
of  an  effective  philanthropy. 

Neither  the  vastness  of  the  field  that  is  before 


196  ON     SPIRITUAL 

us  in  this  instance,  nor  the  variety  of  the  objects  it 
embraces,  should  be  allowed  to  confuse  our  appre- 
hensions of  what  is  in  itself  very  simple.  In  relation 
to  any  hope  of  amendment,  or  to  the  principles 
which  should  be  relied  upon  in  our  endeavours  to 
effect  it,  the  human  family  is  but  as — a  single 
family  ;  the  community  of  nations  is  but  as — a 
numerous  household ;  or,  that  we  may  exclude 
objections,  let  it  suffice  to  say,  that  whatever  is 
true,  and  whatever  would  be  practically  advisable, 
if  our  intention  were  only  to  bring  about  a  reform 
within  some  small  and  insulated  settlement  which 
had  fallen  into  disorder,  is  also  true,  and  would  be 
in  a  practical  sense  wise  to  recommend,  when  it  is 
the  millions  of  this  insulated  world  that  we  are 
thinking  of. 

Human  nature  is  one,  whether  we  take  it  by  fif- 
ties, or  by  millions.  Neither  fifties  nor  millions, 
when  fallen  from  a  condition  of  social  order  and 
purity,  will  renovate  themselves  spontaneously. 
But  whether  it  be  a  smaller  or  a  larger  community 
that  is  wisely  cared  for,  and  taught,  and  aided,  the 
fruit  of  such  labours  will  in  due  time  appear. 

To  simplify  then,  as  much  as  possible  our  present 
course  of  inquiry,  let  us  imagine  that  we  have  before 
us  a  colony  of  very  limited  extent — the  two  or  three 
hundred  families  of  a  remote  settlement ;  and  that, 
in  visiting  them,  we  find  some  of  these  families  to 


CHRISTIANITY.  197 

have  sunk,  through  neglect,  and  untoward  events, 
into  the  most  abject  state  of  destitution,  ignorance, 
and  vice ;  while  those  less  degraded,  and  who  are 
enjoying  the  comforts  of  wealth,  seem  in  a  very 
slight  degree  conscious  of  the  wretchedness  which 
surrounds  them ;  or  at  least  are  little  disposed  to 
attempt  any  methods  of  remedy. 

Now,  putting  out  of  view  the  political  or  legal 
provisions  we  might  wish  to  introduce,  for  effecting 
the  restoration  of  such  a  colony  ;  let  us  imagine  a 
doctrine  which,  if  we  could  but  give  it  universal 
currency  and  credit,  would  at  once  operate  as  an 
invigorating  medicine,  administered  to  a  languishing 
patient,  in  restoring  vital  energy  to  the  social  body. 
We  find  a  large  portion  of  this  community  fallen 
into  a  condition  of  wretchedness  which  renders 
them  the  objects  of  scorn,  and  of  consequent  ill- 
treatment,  from  others  ;  and  which  breeds,  in  their 
own  bosoms,  a  desponding  apathy,  and  robs  them 
of  all  self-respect  and  healthful  activity. 

As  the  remedy  of  these  evils,  we  preach  a  doc- 
trine which,  without  flattering  self-love  or  inspiring 
insolence,  confers  upon  every  individual  of  this 
community — young  and  old,  and  however  degraded, 
a  hitherto  unthought  of  importance  ;  and  which 
challenges  every  soul  as  the  rightful  claimant  by 
birth  of  certain  high  prerogatives.  Let  but  this 
doctrine  be  received  by  all  as  undoubtedly  founded 
17* 


198  ON     SPIRITUAL 

in  fact ;  and  then,  although  the  inequality  of  condi- 
tions is  not  merged,  the  rich  and  the  powerful  learn 
to  respect  their  less  fortunate  brethren  ;  while  these 
learn — what  is  indispensable  to  any  reformation — to 
respect  themselves.  The  promulgation  of  this 
doctrine  introduces  a  new  era,  and  will  probably  be 
of  more  efficacy  in  dispelling  abject  poverty  and  vice, 
than  any  political  reforms  that  can  be  thought  of. 


I. 


What  we  need  then  for  the  renovation  of  the 
human  family  is — the  spread  of  that  life-giving  doc- 
trine which  we  find  in  the  Scriptures,  and  which 
challenges  the  abject  and  the  wretched,  universally, 
and  unexceptively,  as  the  heirs  of  immortality,  and 
as  individually  embraced  in  the  intention  of  the 
Gospel. 

It  follows  from  this  doctrine  that  men,  even  the 
vilest,  are  no  more  to  be  contemned  ; — for  the  Al- 
mighty does  not  contemn  them : — they  are  no  longer 
to  be  forgotten,  or  despotically  abused,  or  selfishly 
despaired  of;  for  the  Son  of  God  has  redeemed 
them.  On  the  contrary ;  they  must  now  singly, 
and  at  whatever  cost,  be  sought  out,  instructed, 
cared  for,  and  succoured. 

We  ask  only  that  a  doctrine  such  as  this  should 


CHRISTIANITY.  199 

be  heartily  embraced  by  Christian  nations,  and 
should  be  carried  out  wherever  such  nations  are 
coming  in  contact  with  barbarous  and  semi-bar- 
barous races  :  must  it  not  become  a  mighty  energy, 
tending  directly  and  certainly,  to  the  renovation  of 
the  world  ? 

With  the  eye  steadily  fixed  upon  some  loath- 
somely abject  or  ferocious  race,  the  veriest  outcasts 
of  the  human  family,  let  us  suppose  ourselves  to 
listen  to  the  proclamation  of  Heaven,  issued  in 
such  terms  as  these — 

"  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him, 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  Or 
thus — "  God  our  Saviour  will  have  all  men  to  be 
saved,  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  ;" 
he  having  "  given  himself  a  ransom  for  all,  to  be 
testified  in  due  time." 

We  might  well  be  content  to  leave  our  argument 
upon  the  ground  of  this  single  evangelic  principle  ; 
and,  in  affirming  our  position  to  be  certain,  that  the 
Redeemer  of  the  world  has  thus  opened  the  path 
of  life  to  every  child  of  man,  attempt  no  more.  If 
this  be  true,  the  motive  of  benevolence  measures 
every  occasion ;  nor  can  its  obligations  be  dis- 
charged so  long  as  any  of  our  brethren  are  unblessed. 
If  this  be  true,  we  virtually  destroy  those  whom 


200  ON     SPIRITUAL 

we  do  not  visit  and  instruct.  No  bosom  can  admit 
this  truth,  and  remain  either  abject  or  selfish. 

But  let  it  be  understood,  that  we  are  neither,  at 
this  moment,  going  about  to  prove  the  truth  of  the 
principle  we  name,  nor  endeavouring  to  show  that 
this  or  that  zealous  endeavour,  now  on  foot  to 
spread  the  Gospel,  must  prosper.  All  we  are  say- 
ing is  this — That  the  Gospel,  thus  understood,  and 
if  warmly  embraced,  as  a  motive  of  conduct,  does 
contain  a  reason  and  an  impulse,  tending  directly  to 
carry  forth  Christianity,  and  all  its  present  blessings, 
from  land  to  land,  until  the  human  family  is  every- 
where happy  ;  and  it  does  this  by  its  solemn  chal- 
lenge of  every  human  being,  as  its  own :  how  vile 
soever  by  actual  condition,  every  human  being  is 
yet  precious  and  honourable  as  redeemed.  In  virtue 
of  this  great  truth,  let  us  find  man  loathsome  as  he 
may  be,  we  yet  may  not  despise,  nor  abhor,  nor 
neglect  him.  As  a  member  of  the  family,  he  is 
indeed  "  dead  in  Adam  ;"  but  yet  is  he  "  alive  in 
Christ."  In  respect  of  every  child  of  man,  lost  as 
he  may  seem,  and  visibly  despicable,  the  Redeemer, 
stretching  forth  his  hand  in  caution,  says,  "  Take 
heed  that  ye  despise  him  not." 

Those  therefore  who  give  the  greatest  promi- 
nence to  the  doctrine  of  redemption,  and  who  hold 
it  and  proclaim  it  in  the  freest  manner,  are  the 
truest  benefactors  to  their  species.  The  doctrine 


CHRISTIANITY  .  201 

which  attaches  infinite  importance  to  human  nature 
singly,  and  which  declares  the  condition  of  each  to 
be  yet  hopeful,  is  the  effective  impulse  of  philan- 
thropy. Let  it  only  be  believed,  and  the  outcasts 
will  be  reclaimed.  Can  philosophy  imagine  a  dog- 
ma more  auspicious  in  its  tendency  than  this  which 
confers  the  highest,  and  let  us  grant  it,  a  fearful 
dignity  upon  every  human  being,  as  immortal,  and 
as  responsible  ;  and  which  opens  to  him,  without  a 
plea  of  exception,  the  brightest  hopes  ?  It  must  be 
a  doctrine  such  as  this,  if  there  be  any,  that  will  at 
once  recover  him  from  degradation,  and  defend  him 
from  oppression. 

Instead  of  imagining,  or  of  teaching  any  such 
benign  doctrine  as  this,  the  mood  of  philosophy 
has  always  been  contemptuous  toward  the  degraded 
races  of  mankind.  Or  whatever  philanthropy  it 
may  have  professed,  it  has  set  on  foot  no  endea- 
vours to  recover  the  lost.  Too  often  has  it  con- 
nived at  the  atrocities  of  which  these  have  been  the 
victims. 

The  Christian's  axiom — That  men  are  individu- 
ally to  be  respected,  and  to  be  cared  for,  and  that 
human  life  and  well-being  must  not  be  trifled  with, 
is  not  the  maxim  of  the  Despot,  whose  palace  is  un- 
dermined with  dungeons ;  nor  of  the  founder  of 
empire  and  the  conqueror  of  kingdoms,  who  rears 
pyramids  of  human  skulls.  It  is  not  the  maxim  of 


202  ON     SPIRITUAL 

the  rapacious  trafficker,  who  amasses  mountains  of 
gold  by  dealing  in  a  drug  that  poisons  the  body  and 
soul  of  millions.  Nor  is  the  Christian  doctrine,  on 
this  head,  in  any  favour  with  the  lovers  of  pleasure, 
or  with  cold  sensualists,  who  never  ask  at  what  cost 
of  human  misery  their  gratifications  may  have  been 
provided.  All  these  parties  love  to  think  of  men  as 
despicable  singly,  and  despicable  in  the  mass  ;  and, 
whether  to  be  counted  by  tens,  or  by  millions,  as 
nothing  better  than  the  dust  in  the  balance,  when 
weighed  against  the  desires  of  pride,  or  the  lust  of 
power,  or  of  animal  indulgence. 

Not  so  the  Gospel ;  and  if  we  only  assume  it  to 
be  believed  as  true,  by  any  one  who,  at  the  impulse 
of  selfish  passions,  may  be  prompted  to  trample 
upon  the  well-being  or  comfort  of  his  fellows,  he 
hears  that  awful  warning,  directed  to  himself — "  It 
were  better  for  a  man  that  a  mill-stone  were  hanged 
about  his  neck,  and  he  cast  into  the  depths  of  the 
sea — it  were  better  for  a  man  never  to  have  been 
born,  than  that  he  should  despise  or  offend  one  of 
the  least  of  those  for  whom  Christ  died."  This 
may  not  indeed  stay  the  oppressor  in  his  course  ; 
but  it  tends  to  do  so  ;  and  it  will,  if  opinion  around 
him  be  free,  and  Christian-like. 

Inasmuch  as  contempt  for  himself  is  at  once  the 
parent  and  the  offspring  of  misery  to  the  individual, 
so  is  contempt  for  others  the  prompter  of  all  crimes. 


CHRISTIANITY.  203 

But  convey  into  the  heart  of  the  wretched  this  Gos- 
pel truth,  which  shows  him  his  own  religious  dig- 
nity, and  he  starts  from  the  earth ;  or  lodge  it  in 
the  conscience  of  the  oppressor,  and  he  is  staggered 
in  the  execution  of  his  purpose. 

But  we  may  easily  make  proof  of  the  tendency  and 
efficacy  of  our  principle,  by  applying  it  to  instances 
always  near  at  hand.  Governed  by  an  undoubting 
belief  of  what  Christianity  affirms  concerning  every 
human  being,  let  us  penetrate  some  of  those  ca- 
verns of  woe  which  undermine  (literally  and  meta- 
phorically undermine)  our  great  towns.  And,  when 
pleasure  and  business  have  had  their  dues,  let  us 
enter  the  home — home,  alas  !  can  it  be  called  ? — of 
our  brother,  whom  hitherto  we  have  not  thought  of 
as  such.  Let  us  learn  from  his  own  lips,  what  he, 
and  his,  endure  from  day  to  day  ;  and  have  endured 
through  the  round  of  our  smiling  years.  And  let 
us  listen,  either  while  he  recounts  his  dull  variety 
of  present  miseries,  or  while  he  tells  of  the  utter 
neglect  of  his  infancy,  of  the  destitution,  and  the 
thoughtless  crimes  of  his  childhood,  of  the  infamy 
of  his  youth,  of  the  wild  desperation  and  enormity 
of  his  manhood  ;  and  now  of  the  sullen  anguish  of 
his  last  years  of  utter  wretchedness.  And  yet  this 
our  brother,  whom  we  find  as  a  broken  vessel,  cast 
forth  and  abhorred,  was  formed  like  ourselves,  capa- 
ble of  enjoyment,  which  he  has  never  tasted  but  as 


204  ON    SPIRITUAL 

poison  ;  and  capable  of  virtue  too,  of  which  he  has 
known  nothing  but  such  a  rumour  as  remorse  may 
have  whispered  in  his  tortured  ear.  It  is  true  that 
even  he  was  formed  for  happiness,  and  for  virtue  ; 
and — if  the  Gospel  be  true,  he  is  still  capable  of 
both ;  and  even  now  might  his  ear  be  wakened  by 
the  alarms  of  mercy  ;  and  even  now  might  he  hear 
the  voice  that  speaks  from  heaven — "  Arise  thou 
that  sleepest,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  life."  Even 
might  this,  our  abject  brother  be  regained,  and  be 
taught  to  set  out  in  our  company  on  the  road  to 
Heaven.  If  the  Gospel  be  true,  all  this  is  true  ; 
and  moreover,  if  we  believe  it  to  be  true,  it  will 
impel  us  thus  to  seek  him  that  was  lost,  and  to 
soothe  his  withered  soul  with  the  sounds  of  grace 
which  ourselves  have  listened  to. 

Whether  true  or  not,  is  not  now  our  question  ;  but 
we  affirm  that,  if  thoroughly  believed  to  be  true — - 
this  evangelic  principle,  which  confers  dignity  upon 
the  meanest  of  the  human  race,  and  opens  hope  be- 
fore the  most  sunken  eye,  does  include  a  substan- 
tial, efficacious  means,  directly  and  powerfully  tend- 
ing to  raise  the  fallen,  and  to  diffuse  happiness. 

The  same  religious  regard  to  the  welfare  of  who- 
ever shares  with  us  the  hopes  of  immortality,  and 
which  impels  the  missionary  to  follow  the  track  of 
savage  hordes,  and  prompts  labours  of  charity 
nearer  home,  yet  hardly  less  arduous — this  feeling, 


CHRISTIANITY.  205 

if  brought  into  the  family  circle,  imparts  a  new  and 
more  serious  conviction  of  duty  to  the  course  we 
pursue  in  promoting  the  highest  good  of  our  chil- 
dren ;  for  if  it  be  reasonable  to  send  missionaries  to 
the  opposite  hemisphere,  at  so  great  cost  and  risk, 
how  unreasonable  to  be  remiss  in  training  those 
most  dear  to  us,  in  "  the  nurture  and  admonition  of 
the  Lord  !"  And  the  same  principle  forbids  our 
regarding  our  servants  as  the  mere  instruments  of 
our  convenience  ;  nor,  if  we  admit  it,  shall  we 
dare  to  compromise  the  religious  welfare  of  any 
whom  we  employ,  from  motives  of  personal  advan- 
tage or  comfort. 

Let  it  now  be  granted  us  that  this  axiom,  which 
puts  the  seal  of  God  upon  the  forehead  of  every 
human  being,  does  most  convincingly  prove  the 
Gospel  itself  to  be  from  Heaven.  Is  it  not  herein, 
a  clear  expression  of  infinite  goodness  ?  Many 
who  have  rejected  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures 
have  yet  been  ready  to  acknowledge  the  benign 
tendency  of  the  ethical  system  they  teach  ;  but  few 
have  discerned  that  still  more  striking  evidence  of 
its  divine  origin  which  arises  from  a  consideration 
of  the  characteristic  article  we  have  here  adverted 
to.  Christ  commands  us  "  to  love  our  enemies  ;" 
but  more  than  this,  and  of  weightier  import  is  the 
principle  which  leads  the  Christian  to  remember 
that  even  his  most  inveterate  enemy  may,  should 
18 


206  ON     SPIRITUAL 

God  grant  him  repentance,  become  his  companion 
through  a  happy  immortality.  The  mere  rule  of 
love,  or  the  verbal  precept  is  almost  lost  in  the 
depth  of  the  motive  which  such  a  belief  inspires. 
Whoever  has  acquired  the  habit  of  thinking  of  those 
around  him,  individually,  as  the  heirs  of  immor- 
tality, has  little  more  to  learn  in  that  department  of 
morals  which  relates  to  our  duty  toward  our  neigh- 
bour. 


II. 


If  we  are  thus  taught  to  entertain  a  religious 
reverence  in  regard  to  the  welfare  of  every  member 
of  the  human  family,  it  remains  to  ask,  What  the 
quality  of  those  emotions  is  with  which,  as  Chris- 
tians, we  should  labour  to  promote  that  welfare  ? 

We  reply  that  these  emotions,  and  in  a  degree 
far  surpassing  any  others,  are  profound  and  intense  ; 
and  they  are  so  in  proportion  to  the  firmness  of  our 
confidence  in  the  reality  of  the  Gospel  itself — or,  in 
other  words,  to  our  personal  piety. 

Much  and  habitual  meditation  on  the  vast  theme 
of  our  own  immortality,  cannot  but  bring  with  it  a 
solicitude,  even  painfully  intense,  for  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  others.  And  as  is  the  personal  religious 
feeling,  so  is  the  relative  feeling  which  expresses 
itself  in  Christian  zeal.  The  waste  places  of  the 


CHRISTIANITY.  207 

world  will  not  be  made  to  blossom,  nor  will  the 
mephitic  dens  of  superstition  ever  be  fearlessl 
entered,  nor  the  horrors  of  savage  life  encountered, 
merely  because  it  is  abstractedly  right  that  such 
perils  should  be  met,  and  such  labours  undergone. 
But  both  the  danger  and  the  toil  are  contemned, 
when  Christian  men,  who  are  happily  conscious  of 
the  divine  truth  and  power  of  the  Gospel,  think  of 
their  fellow-men  as  ignorant  of  it.  It  is  then  that 
benevolent  zeal  burns  with  a  steady  flame,  when 
evangelists,  with  the  animation  of  a  personal  experi- 
ence of  the  truth,  go  forth  saying,  "  We  have  seen 
and  do  testify,  that  the  Father  sent  the  Son  to  be 
the  Saviour  of  the  world  !" 

There  is  however  a  peculiarity  attaching  to  the 
emotions  of  Christian  benevolence,  which  claims  to 
be  noticed.  These  feelings  seem,  in  truth,  to  in- 
volve a  paradox,  which  we  should  not  leave  unex- 
plained. 

It  might  have  been  thought  that  a  religion  the 
very  purport  of  which  is  to  teach  the  comparative 
insignificance  of  the  interests  of  the  present  tran- 
sient life,  would  almost  inevitably  induce,  so  far  as 
it  takes  effect,  an  apathy  and  indifference  toward 
them ;  and  especially  so,  when  it  is  the  temporal 
welfare  of  others,  not  of  ourselves  that  is  thought 
of.  How  natural  to  suppose  that  the  adherents  of 
such  a  religion  would  be  distinguished  from  other 


208  ON     SPIRITUAL 

men  by  their  callous  disregard  of  the  brief  suffer- 
ings and  wants  of  those  around  them !  Why 
should  we  bestow  our  pity  upon  the  sorrows  of  an 
hour,  or  employ  our  hands  in  relieving  necessities 
which  end  so  early  ?  Much  less  should  we  sacri- 
fice our  personal  religious  enjoyments  by  labours 
of  this  kind  ;  or  care  for  the  bodily  comfort  of 
others,  when  spiritual  contemplation  might  fully 
engage  us. 

In  truth,  no  such  cold  reasonings  of  spiritual 
selfishness  have  ever  been  the  characteristics  of 
genuine  Christian  piety.  The  very  contrary  is 
true.  This  is  a  fact  which  needs  not  to  be  proved. 
— The  vast  difference  between  the  ancient  civilized 
world,  and  the  modern,  turns  very  much  upon  it ; 
and  in  comparing  the  two  states  of  society,  nothing 
is  more  remarkable  than  the  incalculably  greater 
extent  of  that  regard  which  is  paid  to  the  bodily 
sufferings  and  wants  of  men  in  modern,  than  was 
paid  in  ancient  times  ;  and  this  difference  is  a  direct 
consequence  of  the  influence  of  Christian  motives. 
It  is  the  believers  in  a  life  hereafter  who  have  done 
almost  all  that  has  ever  been  attempted  for  assuag- 
ing the  sorrows,  and  for  enhancing  the  comforts  of 
men  in  respect  of  the  life  now  passing. 

The  Christian,  like  his  Master,  not  only  has  a 
larger,  and  a  more  long-sighted  compassion  than 
other  men  ;  but  a  more  sensitive  compassion  also — 


CHRISTIANITY.  209 

a  pity  more  quick  and  prompt — a  pity  of  nicer  tact, 
and  a  more  generous  and  gentle  sympathy,  employ- 
ing itself,  not  merely  upon  those  evils  which  are 
ominous  of  remote  ruin ;  but  upon  those  which 
must  become  extinct  in  the  grave. 

What  are  the  facts  which  every  day  exemplify 
these  assertions  ?  The  very  persons  among  us  who 
think  with  mournful  alarm  of  the  spiritual  destitu- 
tion of  the  heathen  world — these  persons  are  those 
who  witness,  with  the  most  sensitive  indignation,  the 
bodily  miseries  of  oppressed  races.  The  very  same 
hearts  which  beat  with  the  hope  of  bringing  pagan 
nations  to  the  knowledge  of  salvation,  these  same 
bosoms  thrill  with  delight  while  listening  to  the 
traveller,  who  describes  the  decent  happiness  of  the 
once  ferocious  savage,  and  the  petty  comforts  and 
embellishments  of  his  home  !  In  explanation  of 
these  facts  it  is  obvious  to  point  to  the  check  which 
is  given  to  selfishness  by  the  Christian  code  ;  and 
to  notice  the  general  warmth  which  is  diffused 
through  the  moral  faculties  by  the  devout  affec- 
tions. But  beyond  this,  we  are  to  remember  that 
Christian  piety  very  much  promotes,  and  indeed 
consists  in,  the  habit  of  connecting  the  incidents 
of  the  present  life,  from  hour  to  hour,  with  the 
well-being  of  the  life  to  come  ;  and  involves  a 
constant  recollection  of  the  moral  bearing  of  the 
present,  upon  the  future.  This  habit  having 
18* 


210  ON     SPIRITUAL 

been  formed — a  sort  of  pulsation  is  maintained — a 
vital  throb,  beating  forward,  every  moment,  from 
time  into  eternity.  But  then  there  is  a  return  in 
this  flow — it  is  a  circulation  of  life  ;  and  thus  it  is 
that  eternity  sends  back  upon  the  interests  of  time 
an  undefined,  yet  weighty  sense  of  its  own  powers 
— communicating  a  serious  intensity,  and  imparting 
a  value,  even  to  the  good  or  ill  of  an  hour.  What- 
ever therefore,  belonging  to  this  life,  which  is  not  in 
itself  frivolous,  or  sensual,  or  sordid — and  no  human 
suffering  is  frivolous,  no  gentle  affection  of  the 
heart  indifferent — whatever  is  not  so,  instead  of  its 
exciting  less  sympathy  through  its  relationship  to  a 
future  life,  excites  so  much  the  more.  The  mind, 
fully  penetrated  by  the  deeply-working  affections 
which  are  its  preparation  for  taking  part  in  the  feli- 
city of  heaven,  and  finding  them  to  be  pent  up  with- 
in the  narrow  limits  of  earth,  applies  them  with — 
might  we  say  it— a  disproportionate  spring  and 
force  to  whatever  around  it  is  of  a  quality  naturally 
to  excite  them. 

The  more  piety,  therefore,  the  more  compassion  ; 
and  the  quick  sympathies  of  a  Christian  heart  apply 
themselves,  in  easy  alternation,  now  to  the  spirtual, 
and  now  to  the  temporal  necessities  of  men ;  and 
with  a  oneness  of  force,  or  momentum,  and  with 
almost  the  same  earnestness  of  zeal,  administer 
relief,  either  to  the  body  or  to  the  soul. 


CHRIST  IAN  IT  Y  ,  211 

There  is  a  depth  of  meaning  in  this  fact,  con- 
sidered in  connection  with  the  movements  now  in 
progress,  for  evangelizing  barbarous  and  half-civil- 
ized races.  We  invite  attention  to  it  from  any  who, 
although  they  may  not  choose  to  class  themselves 
with  "  the  religious,"  would  not  wish  to  be  thought 
indifferent  to  the  happiness  of  their  fellows. 

Why  such  persons  should  not  aid  Christian  mis- 
sions, on  the  obvious  ground  that  Christianity  car- 
ries the  blessings  of  civilization  along  with  it — does 
not  appear.  Let  us  however  for  a  moment  admit 
the  plea  which  such  might  advance — "  That  these 
evangelizing  projects  are  fanatical  in  principle,  and 
are  injudiciously  managed  ;  and  are  therefore  very 
likely  to  come  to  a  speedy  termination."  Neverthe- 
less if  it  were  so,  it  is  certain  that,  under  this  very 
agency  those  regions  are  being  explored  where  the 
most  horrid  usages  prevail,  by  men  whose  very 
characteristic  it  is  (whether  we  think  them  fanatics 
or  not)  to  feel  more  sensitively  than  others,  and 
much  more  so  than  traders  or  philosophical  travel- 
lers ever  do,  the  miseries  and  oppressions  which 
they  there  witness.  From  whom  is  it  that  we  have 
derived,  during  the  last  thirty  years,  a  competent 
and  specific  knowledge  of  the  vilifying  influence  of 
the  superstitions  of  India,  and  of  the  foul  and  cruel 
practices  which  attach  to  them  ?  Is  it  not  mainly 
from  Christian  missionaries  ?  Even  then  if  it  were 


212  ON     SPIRITUAL 

granted  that  the  overwrought  sensibility  of  some  of 
these  reporters  has  exaggerated  the  descriptions 
they  have  sent  home,  yet,  taken  in  the  mass,  such 
narratives  are  authentic,  and  they  remain  uncontra- 
dicted  by  those  from  whom  we  should  never  have 
received  any  such  accounts.  It  is  none  but  men 
whose  feelings  have  been  rendered  keen  by  the  re- 
ligious affections,  that  could  collect  these  reports  : 
irreligious  men,  though  they  have  eyes  to  see,  do 
not  see,  though  they  have  ears  to  hear,  do  not  hear, 
these  things  ;  nor  have  they  hearts  seriously  to  be 
affected  by  the  miseries  of  their  fellows. 

It  should  therefore  be  regarded  as  a  circumstance 
of  very  peculiar  importance — we  mean  it  should  so 
be  regarded  by  all  who  would  be  numbered  among 
philanthropists  and  philosophers,  that  at  this  mo- 
ment, the  world  is  everywhere  set  about,  or  senti- 
nelled with  warm-hearted  men,  and  with  tender- 
spirited  women  too,  whose  personal  benevolent  dis- 
positions have  impelled  them  to  undertake  such  a 
part ;  and  who  are  always  observing  and  reporting 
whatever  is  cruel,  ferocious,  impure,  and  wretched, 
in  those  regions  where,  through  a  long  course  of 
ages,  no  check  whatever  has  restrained  the  worst 
passions  of  human  nature.  But  at  length  these 
"  dark  places  of  the  earth" — full  as  they  are  of  "  the 
habitations  of  cruelty,"  are  opened  to  the  inspection 
of  men  governed  by  happier  dispositions.  We  ask 


CHRISTIANITY.  213 

then — and  we  invite  a  reply  to  the  question — Is  not 
this  fact  of  the  mere  inspection  of  such  regions,  by 
such  persons,  a  great  point  gained  for  humanity  1 
and  have  not  the  reports  which  are  thus  continually 
furnished,  and  presented  to  the  civilized  world,  a 
direct  tendency  to  bring  to  bear  upon  the  evils  so 
reported,  whatever  reliefs  or  remedies  it  may  be 
possible  to  administer  to  them  ?  Where  then  are 
the  philanthropists  who  are  backward  to  hail  this 
modern  system  of  Christian  visitation,  or  to  aid  in 
sustaining  it  ? 

At  the  present  moment,  and  with  the  hearty  con- 
currence of  philosophers,  scientific  establishments 
are  formed  in  several  latitudes,  and  in  both  hemis" 
pheres,  for  noting  and  recording  the  synchronous 
pulsations  of  the  magnetic  fluid.  A  worthy  engage- 
ment we  grant.  But  after  all,  if  what  concerns  the 
happiness  of  man  be  an  end  not  unworthy  of  serious 
regard,  do  we  do  well  to  forget  the  labours  and  per- 
ils of  those  who,  during  the  past  forty  years,  have 
been  noting  and  reporting  (what,  since  the  world 
has  been  peopled,  none  have  thus  reported)  the  ex- 
treme degradations  of  the  human  family  ? 

The  thus  accumulated  knowledge  of  the  actual 
condition  of  the  several  races  of  mankind,  consti- 
tutes a  fund  of  benevolent  excitement,  acting  always 
upon  sensitive  Christian  hearts  ;  and  so  tending  to 
recruit  the  ranks  of  evangelic  labour.  The  purely 


214  ON     SPIRITUAL 

religious  desire  "  to  convert  the  heathen,"  and  the 
conviction  of  duty  in  this  behalf,  may  be  regarded 
as  a  constant  force,  acting  upon  Christian  minds  in 
an  equitable  manner ;  but  the  vivid  impression  of 
present  miseries  to  be  relieved,  acts  intensely  upon 
the  class  of  minds  best  adapted  to  the  arduous  work 
of  breaking  up  the  barbarism  of  untutored  nations. 
Thus  it  is  that  Christian  compassion  for  bodily 
sufferings,  and  a  Christian  zeal  for  the  propagation 
of  Truth,  tend  in  conjunction  to  diffuse  every  spe- 
cies of  good. 

Let  it  now  be  imagined  that  a  human  eye  were 
suddenly  endowed  with  a  microscopic  power, 
reaching  far  and  wide,  and  embracing  at  once  earth 
and  sky — and  the  myriads  of  every  inch,  and  the 
organs  and  faculties  of  each  living  thing,  in  all. 
Nothing  in  such  a  prospect  would  be  exaggeration  : 
nothing  more  than  mere  truth  would  be  presented, 
even  by  so  multiform  and  vast  a  revelation  of  the 
organized  and  conscious  world  ;  and,  if  there  were 
any  inference  properly  arising  from  such  a  spec- 
tacle, and  bearing  upon  our  personal  conduct,  with 
what  force  would  it  come  home  to  us  ? 

What  then  are  Christian  sympathies,  and  what 
are  the  quick  sensibilities,  and  the  far-extending 
anticipations  of  a  Christian  heart; — and  what  is 
this  habit  of  feeling  as  to  things  present,  with  a 
force  which  borrows  impulse  from  the  weight  of 


OF  THE 
CHRISTIANITY^  £~  215  . 

eternity,  what  are  these  habits  and  sensibilities,  as 
applied  to  the  wide  compass  of  the  moral  world, 
but  a  sort  of  microscopic  power,  revealing,  at  a 
glance,  whatever  that  circle  embraces — both  present 
and  future  ?  All  that  may  be  suffered,  and  all  that 
might  be  enjoyed,  by  our  brethren  of  the  human 
family,  opens  itself  to  our  consciousness,  and  if  our 
personal  agency  may  be  thought  to  stand  in  any 
manner  related  to  this  vast  range  of  good  or  ill,  the 
motives  of  benevolence  admit  all  the  depth  and 
intensity  which  our  feeble  nature  can  at  all  sustain. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all  minds,  or  that 
many,  could  surrender  themselves  to  sensibilities 
such  as  these  : — but  some  do  in  fact  thus  feel ;  and 
some  do  thus  think  of  what  surrounds  them ;  and 
although  they  can  by  no  means  so  govern  the  emo- 
tions of  which  they  are  conscious  as  to  be  able  to 
give  them  intelligible  expression ;  yet  they  do,  if 
well  constituted,  and  if  ruled  by  Christian  maxims, 
so  resolve,  and  so  act  as  to  draw  many  in  their  train, 
and  to  lead  forth  bands  of  Christian  philanthropy. 
In  every  age  there  have  been  a  few  thus  to  feel ; 
and  in  an  age  like  the  present,  which  favours  the 
active  employment  of  these  deep  energies  of  the 
soul,  men,  so  moulded,  who  otherwise  might  either 
have  smothered  their  emotions,  or  have  misdirected 
them  toward  some  purpose  of  fanaticism,  will  go 


216  ON     SPIRITUAL 

forth  to  carry  blessings,  wherever  man  is  yet  igno- 
rant and  unhappy. 


III. 


We  have  seen  that  Christianity  rescues  every 
member  of  the  human  family,  singly,  from  con- 
tempt, oppression,  and  wretchedness,  by  attaching 
to  each  an  infinite  importance,  as  responsible,  and 
immortal,  and  as  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  redemp- 
tion. We  have  seen  moreover  that,  to  give  practical 
effect  to  this  principle,  the  Gospel  generates  senti- 
ments of  humanity  and  compassion,  peculiarly 
vivid,  whether  excited  by  the  bodily  sufferings,  or 
the  spiritual  destitution  of  our  fellows.  But  these 
two  distinctions  of  the  religion  of  Christ  are  con- 
nected with 

A  LAW  OF  DIFFUSION  ; 

and  we  must,  in  this  instance,  use  the  word  law  in 
both  its  customary  senses,  as  intending — a  statute, 
or  sanctioned  command  ;  and  an  impulse,  or  force, 
or  an  established  mode  of  action  ;  as  when  we  speak 
of  the  laws  of  nature. 

Our  religion  must  be  carried  out  into  all  the  world ; 
for  its  Author  has  formally  and  solemnly  enjoined 
his  ministers  so  to  promulgate  it ;  and  it  would  be 


CHRISTIANITY.  217 

thus  propagated  ;  because  those  in  whose  bosoms  it 
resides  with  power,  feel  impelled  to  communicate 
the  happiness  they  derive  from  it. 

The  great  fact,  several  times  adverted  to  in  the 
course  of  these  Lectures,  of  the  slow  development 
of  the  powers  of  Christianity,  is  most  signally 
illustrated  in  the  instance  of  this,  its  Law  and  Im- 
pulse of  Diffusion.  Both  took  full  effect  in  the 
apostolic  era  ;  and  within  a  century  from  the  ascen- 
sion of  Christ,  his  doctrine  had  been  carried,  with 
effect,  throughout  the  area  of  the  Roman  world ;  and 
even  far  beyond  it.  But  from  the  time  when  nefa- 
rious means  were  resorted  to  for  grasping  a  still- 
pagan  population  within  the  arms  of  the  church,  by 
bringing  Christianity  itself  to  the  nearest  resem- 
blance possible,  to  the  ancient  polytheism — from  that 
time  onward,  little  or  nothing  deserving  to  be  named 
as  an  extension  of  the  Gospel,  took  place  during  a 
long  series  of  ages.  Nations  were  varnished  with 
Christian  rites — but  were  not  evangelized. 

And  most  remarkable  is  the  continued  torpor  of 
this  expansive  force  during  the  great  awakening 
season  of  the  Reformation.  Other  principles  were 
then  to  be  developed  ; — this  was  to  wait  its  hour. 
But  its  hour  has  come  ;  and  England  is  the  theatre 
of  its  expansion. 

Those  who  can  free  themselves  from  the  thrall  of 
irreligious  prejudices  (and  no  prejudices  are  more 
19 


218  ON     SPIRITUAL 

firm  in  their  texture,  or  more  narrow)  and  who  are 
accustomed  to  read  the  future  in  the  past,  will  not 
find  it  easy  to  resist  the  belief  that  a  Christianizing 
of  the  world  is  to  be  the  consequence  of  that  singular 
conjuncture  of  circumstances  which  makes  this 
country,  at  the  same  moment,  the  centre  of  colo- 
nization, and  the  centre  of  the  long  inert,  but  now 
active  Law  of  evangelical  diffusion. 

It  is  but  incidentally  that  the  evangelizing  zeal  of 
these  times  has  sprung  out  of  the  commercial  and 
colonial  greatness  of  England.  There  has  indeed 
been  a  connexion  of  causes,  running  from  the  one 
into  the  other  ;  but  the  main  causes  have  had  an 
altogether  independent  origin. 

We  must  be  blind  to  the  most  conspicuous  facts, 
if  we  fail  to  observe  so  remarkable  a  combination 
of  tendencies  as  that  to  which  we  now  advert. — 

After  sixteen  or  seventeen  hundred  years  of  an- 
abeyance  of  the  first  law  of  the  Christian  code,  and 
of  the  lethargy  of  its  diffusive  impulse,  that  law  has 
at  length  fixed  itself  in  all  consciences,  and  the  im- 
pulse has  affected  all  hearts  ;  and  this  has  happened 
among  the  most  expansive  and  enterprising  of  civil- 
ized communities,  and  at  a  moment  when,  in  various 
modes,  the  British  stock,  name,  language,  literature, 
feeling,  habits,  institutions,  are  taking  possession  of 
every  unclaimed  area  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth. 
And  it  should  be  observed  that  pure  Christianity,  as 


CHRISTIANITY.  219 

connected  with  this  national  outspread,  is,  in  a  very 
remarkable  manner,  justifying  its  characteristic  as 
the  "  salt  of  the  earth  " — or  true  conservative  prin- 
ciple of  the  social  system,  the  operation  of  which, 
is,  by  a  silent  but  efficacious  process,  tending  to 
secure  the  highest  benefits  which  the  philanthropist 
can  desire.  Christianity,  felt  to  be  indispensable  to 
what  may  be  called — colonial  health,  and  to  the 
actual  preservation  of  settlements  existing  under 
precarious  circumstances,  will  be  cherished  and 
sustained,  wherever  the  habits  of  the  settlers  are  of 
the  kind  most  likely  to  render  a  colony  permanently 
prosperous ;  while  simultaneous  settlements,  not 
governed  by  Christian  principles,  and  within  which 
all  the  vices  of  old  civilization  collapse  with  the 
ferocities  of  savage  life,  will  work  their  own  ruin ; 
for  this  mixture  of  the  worst  elements  of  the  two 
forms  of  society,  cannot  but  be  self-destructive. 
Such  settlements  must  run  their  course — take  their 
fate — and  always  pressing  as  they  do  toward  dis- 
order, dispersion,  decay,  must  ere  long  become 
extinct.  Colonies  which,  by  renouncing  the  Gospel 
and  contemning  its  forms,  abandon  themselves  to 
the  miasmas  of  those  swamps,  whereinto  the  old 
world  drains  itself,  shal-l  die  out ;  leaving  the  dese- 
crated wilderness  to  enjoy  its  sabbaths,  until  a 
company  fearing  God,  comes  to  redeem  the  desola- 
tion which  atheism  has  left  as  her  most  significant 


220  ON    SPIRITUAL 

monument.  Tims  by  what  may  be  regarded  as  a 
natural  process  of  colonial  purification,  and  espe- 
cially if  aided,  as  it  should  be,  by  the  paternal 
discretion  and  Christian-like  feeling  of  the  govern- 
ment of  a  Christian  country,  the  wastes  of  the  earth 
must  gradually  be  Christianized  ;  until,  the  world 
itself  having  become  at  once  Christian  and  English, 
the  very  names  shall  almost  be  convertible.  Can 
we  then  refrain  our  happy  and  hopeful  feelings  as 
Christians,  as  patriots  and  as  philanthropists,  at  a 
moment  when  Britain  sits  at  home,  like  a  watchful 
mother  of  a  rising  world  ;  at  a  time  when,  by  her 
direct,  or  by  her  moral  influence,  she  keeps  in  awe 
many  whom  she  does  not  rule,  and  when  the  sceptre 
of  England  has  become  a  symbol  of  safety,  and  a 
pledge  of  justice  to  many  nations ;  and  when  the 
hand  that  holds  that  sceptre  is  screening  from 
wrong  the  hut  and  hearth  of  savage  tribes,  on  both 
sides  the  equator ;  at  such  a  time,  how  does  every 
motive,  secular  and  religious,  combine  to  enhance 
the  earnestness  of  the  desire,  that  a  bright  triumph  of 
Spiritual  Christianity  at  home  — its  purification  from 
ancient  corruptions — its  diffusion  among  the  neg- 
lected heathen  of  our  great  towns,  and  not  less,  its 
taking  anew  a  firm  hold  of  the  convictions  of  the 
upper  and  educated  classes — that  by  all  these  means, 
the  Gospel — the  only  hope  of  man,  may,  even  in 
our  times,  plant  its  banner  of  love  on  every  shore  ; 


CHRISTIANITY.  221 

— and  moreover  that,  by  the  means  of  England, 
and  through  her  influence,  the  "  multitude  of  the 
islands  "  may  rejoice,  and  howling  wildernesses  be 
reclaimed,  until  the  old  civilized  world,  hemmed  in 
on  all  sides  by  a  new  and  better  social  order,  shall 
itself  be  reclaimed  and  regenerated ! 

Far  are  we  from  speaking  of  such  events  in  the 
language  of  confident  anticipation.  All  we  affirm 
is,  That  the  Gospel  of  Christ  tends  to  bring  them 
about ;  and  that  it  will  do  so,  should  its  influence  in 
this  country  be  much  extended  and  refreshed. 


IV. 


We  have  to  name  a  fourth,  and  a  most  important 
distinction  of  Spiritual  Christianity,  fitting  it  to  be 
regarded  as  the  true  and  only  effective  instrument 
of  universal  good  to  the  human  family.  In  naming 
what  we  have  now  in  view,  we  must  ask  that  candid 
attention,  which  may  exclude  the  probability  of  a 
misunderstanding  of  our  real  meaning. 

We  affirm  that  Spiritual  Christianity  is  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  purpose  of  diffusing  truth  and  virtue 
through  the  world,  because,  as  a  spiritual  system, 

IT  IS  ALWAYS  SUPERIOR  TO  EVERY  VISIBLE  INSTITU- 
TION.    Such  institutions,  subject  as  they  are  to  the 
control  of  man,  and  liable  therefore  always  to  perver- 
19* 


222  ON    SPIRITUAL 

sion  and  overthrow,  must  often  obstruct,  or  utterly 
forbid  the  progress  of  the  Gospel,  if  it  were  inextri- 
cably connected  with  them  ;  or  unless  it  were  held 
to  be  separable  from  them,  and  of  far  higher  import- 
ance than  any,  even  the  best  of  them.  What  then 
is  our  principle  on  this  ground  ? — assuredly  not  that 
such  institutions,  whether  more  or  less  strictly  eccle- 
siastical, are  of  little  importance  ;  or  that  they  may 
be  safely  contemned,  or  hastily  and  recklessly  over- 
thrown, or  dismantled,  or  despoiled.  Certainly  we 
have  no  such  meaning  as  this.  Assuredly  we  hold 
no  such  loose  doctrine  as  this.  On  the  contrary,  if 
the  present  were  a  fit  occasion  on  which  to  express 
our  opinion  on  questions  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  we 
might  perhaps  carry  our  doctrine  much  further  than 
would  be  likely  to  meet  the  concurrence  of  many 
here  present.  We  may  therefore  think  ourselves 
free  from  any  fair  imputation  of  laxity  of  belief  in 
regard  to  the  high  importance  of  existing  religious 
institutions. 

But  surely  such  institutions,  at  the  best,  are  only 
means  to  an  end  ;  and  the  end  must  be  greater  than 
the  means,  always.  Such  institutions  moreover, 
inasmuch  as  they  have  a  local  limitation,  and  are 
more  or  less  intimately  interwoven  with  whatever 
belongs  to  the  civil  and  social  existence  of  the  peo- 
ple among  whom  they  are  found,  and  as  they  are 
administered,  from  year  to  year,  by  men — not  in- 


CHRISTIANITY.  223 

spired,  they  are  liable  to  sway,  on  this  side  and  on 
that ;  and  do  in  fact  partake  of  the  dangerous  heav- 
ings  by  which  all  human  affairs  are  so  often  brought 
into  jeopardy.  It  cannot  therefore  be  wise  to  put 
our  Christianity,  without  reserve,  on  board  even  the 
fairest  and  best  navigated  ecclesiastical  institution 
that  has  ever  braved  the  storms. 

What  are  the  lessons  which  history  teaches  us  on 
this  point  ?  What  has  come  of  the  experiment  to 
entrust  a  visible  universal  church  with  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  human  race  ?  How  has  the  church 
of  Rome  acquitted  herself  of  this  usurped  trust  ? — 
The  foulest  corruptions,  the  most  extraordinary  bias* 
phemies,  the  most  atrocious  crimes,  and  the  darkest 
errors,  doctrinal  and  moral,  and  all  perpetuated 
through  a  long  course  of  ages,  these  have  been  the 
fruits  of  the  theory  which  would  lodge  an  irrespon- 
sible and  absolute  power  over  Christianity  with 
fallible  man. 

Christianity  we  must  believe  to  be  greater,  and 
more  permanent,  and  of  wider  extent,  than  any  means 
that  can  be  devised  for  maintaining,  or  for  diffusing 
it.  And  in  proportion  as  the  Gospel  is  understood, 
in  its  purity  and  in  its  power — in  proportion  as  it  is 
felt  to  be  a  spiritual  religion,  this  independence  of 
whatever  is  local  and  visible  will  the  more  appear  ; 
not  indeed  to  the  disparagement  of  visible  institu- 


224  ON     SPIRITUAL 

tions ;  but  to  the  higher  glory  of  the  spiritual 
reality. 

The  warmest  supporters  of  those  associations  for 
the  propagation  of  religious  truth,  which  distinguish 
our  times,  are  not  so  fond  as  to  imagine  that  the 
Gospel  is  all  risked  in  their  bark  ;  or  that  the  decay 
or  dispersion  of  these  societies,  how  much  soever  to 
be  lamented,  would  seal  its  fate  in  the  world  ! 

Christianity,  which  has  survived  all  empires,  and 
all  forms  of  opinion,  and  all  human  institutions,  not 
only  will  survive  all,  but  is  at  every  moment  supe- 
rior to  all,  and  must  be  allowed  to  take  its  high 
course,  whether  these  institutions  move  with  it,  or 
are  broken  on  their  way. 

We  must  therefore,  in  connexion  with  this  im- 
portant topic,  once  again,  and  finally,  allude  to  those 
lately  revived  opinions  to  which  we  have  several 
times  adverted,  as  being  peculiarly  opposed  to  the 
progress  of  spiritual — of  genuine  Christianity. 

It  seems  scarcely  to  need  proof,  that  any  system 
of  opinions,  the  purport  and  tendency  of  which  is  to 
give  an  unusual  prominence,  and  a  paramount  im- 
portance to  visible  institutions,  and  especially  as  his- 
torically transmitted  and  geographically  defined,  and 
which,  with  a  severe  consistency,  denies  the  very 
name  of  Christian  to  whatever  may  be  found  beyond 
its  pale,  or  may  not  acknowledge  its  jurisdiction, 
that  such  a  system,  so  far  as  it  takes  effect,  stands 


CHRISTIANITY.  225 

opposed  to  whatever  is  the  most  auspicious  in  the 
present  age  ;  and  if  permitted  to  work  its  will,  must 
turn  back  the  current  of  human  affairs — a  thousand 
years,  and  would  confine  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel 
within  limits  narrower  than  those  of  ancient  Juda- 
ism. These  exclusive  opinions,  so  fondly  embraced 
by  many,  are  indeed — a  "discipline  of  the  secret," 
likely  enough  to  bury  the  Gospel  in  a  cloister,  along 
with  the  last  hopes  of  happiness  for  mankind. 

Whoever  does  not  admit  the  independence  of 
Christianity,  as  to  the  visible  means  of  its  mainte- 
nance, and  its  superiority  to  all  such  means,  reduces 
himself  to  the  sad  necessity  of  rejecting,  even  the 
most  convincing  evidence  which  may  attest  the  tri- 
umphs of  the  Gospel  under  forms  which  he  does  not 
allow  to  be  legitimate.  The  consequence  must  be, 
not  indeed  that  such  successes  of  "unauthentic  zeal" 
are  stayed  in  their  course  till  he  approves  them  ; — 
but  that  he  himself  is  driven  further  and  further  from 
whatever  is  substantial,  whatever  is  benign,  what- 
ever is  reasonable  in  the  Christian  system,  until  he 
finds  a  gloomy  home,  not  in  a  church — but  in  a 
sepulchre. 

No  position  can  be  imagined  more  undesirable, 
or  indeed  fearful,  than  will  be  that  occupied  by 
very  many,  should  pure  Christianity  rapidly  spread 
in  the  heathen  world,  under  what  they  are  pleased 
to  call  "  irregular  ministrations,"  Such  persons,  ren- 


226  ON     SPIRITUAL 

dered  only  so  much  the  more  obdurate  by  the 
copious  evidence  that  is  reaching  '  them  of  the 
falseness  of  their  theory,  would  be  driven,  not  im- 
probably, in  desperation,  to  take  part  with  the  open 
enemies  of  all  truth. 

Christians  better  taught,  are  prepared  to  hail  with 
unfeigned,  and  with  unmixed  pleasure,"  every  in- 
stance, let  it  be  found  where  it  may,  in  which  the 
lives  and  tempers  of  men  are  reformed  on  the 
Christian  model ;  and,  in  perfect  consistency  with 
their  principles,  they  will  always  think  it  their  duty 
and  privilege  to  take  part  in  any  endeavours  that 
are  sincerely  and  prudently  instituted  for  imparting 
to  the  ignorant  the  blessings  of  truth. 

How  many  perplexities  are  evaded  by  a  hearty 
recognition  of  our  axiom — That  the  Gospel  is 
always  more  than  the  instrumentalities  it  employs  ! 
How  much  peace  of  conscience  is  connected  with 
a  steady  adherence  to  the  belief,  That  the  rescue  of 
immortal  souls  from  sin  and  misery  is  a  work  which, 
when  effected  by  Sovereign  Mercy,  we  never  need 
scruple  to  rejoice  in  ! 

It  cannot  well  be  doubted  that  the  purest  forms 
of  Christianity,  whatever  they  are,  will  on  the 
whole,  be  the  most  efficacious  in  extending  it ;  if 
therefore  we  suppose  all  true  Christians  to  be  gov- 
erned by  the  simple  rule  of  aiding  to  promote  the 
Gospel,  under  whatsoever  form  they  see  it  to  be  ad- 


CHRISTIANITY.  227 

vancing  the  most  auspiciously — then  it  must  hap- 
pen that — The  purest  form  of  Christianity  will,  in 
the  end,  draw  around  itself  all,  or  the  greater  num- 
ber of  sincere  Christians ;  and  so  by  this  simple 
process,  the  much  desired  church  unity  would  be 
brought  about,  not  by  polemical,  but  by  evangelical 
triumphs. 


We  come  then  to  mention  the  fifth  of  those  hap- 
py distinctions  of  Spiritual  Christianity  which 
warrant  a  reasonable  hope  of  its  diffusion,  with 
all  the  blessings  that  attend  it,  throughout  the 
earth. — 

Spiritual  Christianity  offers  a  ground  of  cordial 
combination,  for  all  purposes  of  religious  benevo- 
lence, among  its  true  adherents. 

We  have  here  to  do  with  one  of  those  frequent 
instances  in  which  a  rule  that,  in  theory,  may  seem 
beset  with  difficulties,  ceases  to  be  so,  when  honest- 
ly reduced  to  practice.  While  men  of  cold  hearts 
and  narrow  understandings  are  propounding  inter- 
minable questions,  as  to  the  possibility  of  giving 
contentment  to  the  exquisite  delicacy  of  their  "  con- 
sciencies,"  when  they  are  required  to  aid  and  assist 
in  some  good  work — Christian  men,  whose  con- 
sciences are  informed  by  the  instincts  of  love,  find 


228  ON      SPIRITUAL 

abundant  comfort  and  pleasure  in  joining  hands 
with  their  brethren,  whenever  any  labours  of  cha- 
rity demand  their  co-operation. 

We  do  not  hold  ourselves  bound  to  attempt  a 
reply  to  the  question  of  sanctimonious  selfishness — 
"  Who  is  my  brother  ?  who  is  my  neighbour  ?"  For 
the  most  exact  and  elaborate  answer  must  fail  to 
supply  what  is  really  wanting  in  the  querist — the 
heart  of  a  Christian ;  and  as  to  those  in  whose 
bosoms  such  a  heart  beats,  they  never  in  fact  put 
any  such  question. 

In  giving  effect  to  the  Christian  principle  of  co- 
operation in  works  of  charity,  two  conditions  are 
always  supposed  : — \hzfirst  is,  that  those  who  are 
thus  summoned  to   "  strive  together"  for  promoting 
the  welfare  of  their  fellow-men  are  so  far  animated 
by  Christian  motives,   and  are  so  far  governed  by 
Christian  principles,  as  to  satisfy  their  brethren  as 
to  their  claim  to  be  treated  with  cordial  affection. 
Verbal  specifications  of  belief,  on  secondary  points, 
are  superseded  by  the  confidence  which   a  truly 
Christian  deportment  inspires.     Nothing   can    be 
more  frigid,  or  impertinent,  or  arrogant,  than  the 
question — "  Can  I  join  hands  with — Christ's  true 
disciples,  differing  from  me  in  points  of  belief  ?" 

The  second  condition  of  Christian  combinations 
for  promoting  benevolent  designs,  is — a  genuine 
warmth  of  the  benevolent  affections,  in  those  who  so 


CHRISTIANITY.  229 

combine.  We  are  not  afraid  to  affirm  it  as  a  gen- 
eral truth  that,  where  good  men  are  seen  withdraw- 
ing from  this,  that,  and  the  other  labours  of  love,  on 
the  plea  of  conscientious  scruples,  the  moral  nature 
with  them  will  be  found  to  be  of  small  dimensions, 
or  of  slender  proportions.  If  the  moral  tempera- 
ment be  vigorous,  and  the  understanding  not  infirm, 
great  motives  will  overrule  inferior  motives,  and  the 
impulses  of  benevolence  will,  with  an  irresistible 
momentum,  break  through  those  snares  for  the  con- 
science which  the  Adversary,  when  driven  to  em- 
ploy his  last  expedients,  spreads  in  the  way  of 
Christian  enterprises. 

Hitherto,  although  frequently  alluding  to  them, 
we  have  not  distinctly  spoken  of  those  enterprises 
of  Christian  zeal  and  benevolence  which  stand  forth 
as  so  remarkable  a  feature  of  the  moral  history  of 
the  present  age,  and  which  are  its  glory.  We  are 
compromised  with  none  of  these  institutions  ; — we 
are  pledged  to  none,  as  apologists  ;  and  yet  are 
bound  to  all  as  Christians.  None  commands  our 
servile  or  partizan-like  support ; — each  commands 
our  cordial  good  wishes,  and  the  utmost  aid  we 
could  give. 

These  pious  and  charitable  associations  are,  col- 
lectively, the  expression  of  a  widely-diffused,  and 
Christian-like  benevolence,  which  is  indeed  the  praise 
of  Britain,  and  the  admiration   of  the  world ;  and 
20 


• 


230  ON     SPIRITUAL 

which  shall  be  the  theme  of  posterity.  Compared 
with  any  enterprises  which  heretofore  have  com- 
bined the  hearts  and  energies  of  a  people,  is  not  the 
missionary  enterprise  noble  and  generous  in  its 
conception — heaven-like  in  its  object  and  temper — 
unblamable  in  the  means  it  adopts,  and  most  benign 
so  far  as  it  prospers,  in  its  actual  results  ? 

And  why  has  it  not  prospered  more  ?  Many 
reasons  should  be  assigned  in  reply ;  but  we  are 
here  content  to  say,  That,  undoubtedly,  and  not 
forgetting  our  dependence  upon  the  divine  aid,  it 
would  so  prosper  if  it  commanded,  to  a  greater 
extent,  and  in  proportion  to  its  indisputable  merits, 
the  resources,  the  influence,  the  intelligent  co-opera- 
tion of  the  upper  and  educated  classes  of  England. 
'  The  laborious  endeavours  now  making,  at  so 
many  points,  to  diffuse  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel, 
and  with  them  the  blessings  of  social  order,  peace, 
and  wealth  through  the  world — these  endeavours, 
on  every  principle  of  mere  reason,  of  benevolence, 
and  of  Christian  feeling,  deserve — nay,  demand, 
far  more  support  than  they  actually  receive  from  the 
noble,  and  the  learned — from  those  whose  position 
in  society,  or  whose  accomplishments  and  talents, 
would  render  their  cordial  co-operation  incalculably 
important. 

What,  if  some  of  these  societies  may  have  erred? 
What  if  we  relish  not  their  style,  or  distaste  their 


CHRISTIANITY.  23 1 

proceedings,  or  question  some  of  their  averments  ? 
We  must  not  look  at  any  human  agencies  in  so 
sickly  a  manner,  as  would  lead  us  to  abandon  what 
is  great  and  good,  on  the  plea  of  blemishes  from 
which  nothing  human  is  exempt.  Posterity,  we 
may  be  sure,  will  not  thus  look  at  the  missionary 
zeal  of  the  nineteenth  century  ;  but  will  rather  re- 
gard the  broad  intention,  and  the  prominent  pur- 
port of  these  labours  of  love.  If  these  labours 
fail  of  their  desired  success,  yet  the  facts  of  such 
an  endeavour  having  been  made,  will  not  be  blotted 
from  the  page  of  history  ;  and  let  us  think  of  it  as 
certain,  that  those  who  shall  read  that  page,  will 
deal,  not  very  gently,  with  any  by  whose  immediate 
fault  so  bright  a  hope  of  renovation  for  the  world, 
was  suffered  to  expire.  But  on  the  contrary,  if 
this  endeavour  succeed,  and  if,  as  we  firmly  believe, 
the  present  evangelic  labours  of  this  country  are  as 
the  dawn  of  day  in  the  world's  history — if  indeed 
we  are  now  standing,  as  on  the  very  confines  of 
light  and  darkness — if  long  centuries  of  moral  de- 
solation are  to  be  followed  by  far  longer  eras  of 
truth,  virtue,  peace,  let  us  take  care  that  we  our- 
selves be  not  fixed  upon  those  confines,  as  "  pillars 
of  salt" — the  monuments  of  unbelief  and  selfish 
infatuation  ! 

There  is  one  aspect  of  the  evangelizing  associa- 
tions now  referred  to,  which  does  not  seem  to  have 


232  ON     SPIRITUAL 

attracted  the  attention  it  deserves  ;  and  which,  as 
we  venture  to  affirm,  might  not  improperly  be  seri- 
ously considered  at  the  present  moment  by  the 
upper  and  educated  classes.  We  refer  to  the  re- 
flex influence  of  these  combinations  upon  the  classes 
to  which  mainly  they  owe  their  support,  and  by 
which  they  are  governed. 

The  great  extent  and  depth  of  this  reflected  in- 
fluence can  be  estimated  only  by  those  (and  but  im- 
perfectly even  by  such)  whose  position  in  society, 
and  whose  habits  have  enabled  them,  at  leisure,  to 
become  acquainted  with  the  sentiments  and  intel- 
lectual condition  of  the  masses  from  which  Mis- 
sionary Societies  draw  four-fifths  of  their  revenues. 
These  contributors,  ranging  from  the  artisan  class, 
and  upward  toward  the  higher  grades,  and  including 
a  fair  proportion  of  the  moderate  opulence  and 
average  intelligence  of  the  country,  are  doing  for 
themselves,  full  as  much,  in  every  sense,  as  they  are 
doing  for  the  heathen  world  ; — and  we  say  this 
without  intending  any  disparagement  of  the  mis- 
sionary work  abroad. 

We  could  not  easily  over-rate  the  extent  or  im- 
portance of  that  moral  and  intellectual  advancement 
which,  in  the  course  of  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years, 
has  resulted  directly  from  the  diffusion  of  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  in  England.  It  has  carried  with  it, 
and  has  conveyed  to  many  thousands  of  the  middle 


CHRISTIANITY.  233 

orders,  a  large  amount  and  variety  of  general  know- 
ledge, geographical,  historical,  statistical ;  it  has 
vastly  expanded  the  modes  of  thinking  usual  with 
these  orders ;  it  has  ennobled  their  sentiments ;  it 
has  habituated  them  to  generous,  and,  in  a  true 
sense,  to  liberal  courses  of  behaviour ;  it  has 
thrown  into  discredit  many  frivolous  or  sensual  em- 
ployments, or  amusements  ;  it  has  trained  thousands 
of  young  persons  in  the  inestimably  important  habit 
of  caring,  in  a  sensitive  and  active  manner,  for  the 
welfare  of  others  ;  and  has  much  diverted  from  the 
channel  of  sordid  selfishness,  the  ordinary  current 
of  thought.  If  we  will  hear  and  believe  it,  the 
missionary  temper,  diffused  as  it  is  on  all  sides, 
although  attaching  but  to  a  portion  of  the  people, 
has  at  length  educated  a  class  of  citizens  which, 
from  its  breadth  of  feeling,  its  fair  intelligence,  its 
familiarity  with  the  course  of  events  throughout 
the  world,  and  its  high  feeling  of  whatever  is  just, 
humane,  and  Christian-like,  may  prove  itself,  in 
future  perils  of  the  state,  the  principal  stay  of  a 
wise  and  religious  government. 

The  influence  of  the  missionary  work  in  sustain- 
ing and  extending  some  religious  communities 
which,  years  ago,  were  threatened  with  extinction, 
is  not  one  of  the  least  remarkable  of  its  effects  ; 
and  if,  at  an  early  period  of  these  evangelizing  in- 
stitutions, the  several  evangelic  bodies  had  so  seen 
20* 


234  ON     SPIRITUAL 

their  corporate  interests,  as  to  have  amalgamated,  on 
this  ground — to  have  dismissed  their  differences  as 
frivolous — to  have  consolidated  their  resources,  to 
have  distributed  the  work  before  them  on  some  con- 
sistent principle  of  the  division  of  labour  ;  and  in 
a  word  to  have  chalked  their  path  of  benevolent 
universal  conquest,  from  east  to  west,  from  north 
to  south — if  these  things  had  happened,  statesmen 
might  have  seen,  with  amazement,  the  government 
of  the  world  in  some  measure  taken  out  of  their 
hands,  by  a  moral  power  of  continually  increasing 
energy. 

No  such  concentration  or  condensation  of  the 
evangelic  zeal  has  had  place.  But  it  is  not  certain 
that  it  may  not  in  future.  Whether  it  does  or  not, 
it  is  unquestionable  that  this  benevolent  care  for 
the  world,  now  exercised  almost  exclusively  by  the 
middle  classes — this  effective,  and  morally  real 
colonial  administration,  cannot  but  confer  a  force, 
real  also,  upon  those  in  whose  hands  it  rests  ;  and 
therefore  it  does  not  leave  the  social  balance  be- 
tween them  and  the  upper  classes  altogether  un- 
affected. 

Whatever  inference  these  considerations  might 
suggest,  it  is  abundantly  certain  that  there  can  be 
but  one  mode  in  which  an  influence  so  wide  and 
important  can  be  shared  by  those  who  might  think 
a  good  portion  of  it  their  due. — The  power  we  are 


CHRISTIANITY.  235 

speaking  of  is — a  moral  and  religious  power ;  and 
if  we  except  some  very  transient  participation  of  it, 
it  can  be  wielded  only  in  the  mode  of  a  sincere, 
ingenuous,  and  religious  sympathy  with  the  great 
purposes  that  are  the  objects  of  it. 

No  factitious  zeal,  no  politic  compliances,  no 
stooping  to  conquer,  could  avail  for  the  purpose 
intended,  or  beyond  the  term  of  a  few  months. 
The  evangelic  work,  inseparable  as  it  is  from 
Christianity  when  not  curbed  by  despotism,  would 
quickly  fail,  and  reach  its  end,  unless  carried  for- 
ward by  a  genuine  religious  impulse. 

There  is  then  a  vast  movement  going  on  near  to 
us  : — it  embraces  the  earth  : — it  throws  back  upon 
its  originators  a  proportionate  moral  power,  a  power 
not  very  remote,  in  some  of  its  bearings,  from  po- 
litical power  ;  and  yet  it  is  such  as  can  be  exercised 
by  none  but  those  whose  religious  convictions  are 
sincere  and  vigorous — by  none  but  Christian  men  ! 
The  glare  and  glitter  of  life  may  conceal  these 
realities  from  our  view ;  but  the  more  they  are 
considered,  and  the  better  they  are  understood,  the 
more  will  they  seem  to  deserve  the  serious  regard 
of  those  who  would  not  choose  to  be  ignorant  of 
what  may  even  suddenly  come  to  press  itself  upon 
their  attention. 

At  the  commencement  of  these  Lectures  we 
affirmed,  what  we  most  fully  believe  to  be  a  fact 


236  ON     SPIRITUAL 

— the  inseparable  connexion  of  Christianity  with 
the  welfare,  nay,  with  the  political  existence  of  the 
British  empire,  and  its  cherished  institutions.  A 
course  of  events  rapidly  evolving,  and  tending  to- 
ward some  unknown  issue,  is  convincing  all  parties 
—That  a  merely  secular,  or  political  and  heartless 
Christianity,  will  neither  subserve  the  purposes  of 
religion,  nor  even  be  able  to  sustain  itself  against 
the  pressure  of  many  hostile  forces.  It  is  proved, 
it  is  understood — it  is  admitted,  that  our  Christianity 
must  have  a  firm  hold  of  our  most  sincere  con- 
victions— that  it  must  be  deeply  seated  in  our  affec- 
tions— that  it  must  command  us  as  an  independent 
power,  as  a  positive  authority,  superior  to  secular 
influence,  and  as  a  PRINCIPLE  which  we  may  neither 
modify,  nor  compromise  ;  but  which  we  must 
honour  by  an  implicit,  yet  reasonable  homage. 

This  understood,  as  it  seems  to  be  on  all  sides 
among  those  who  seriously  think  on  the  subject,  a 
choice  is  to  be  made  between  those  two  forms  of 
Christianity  which  alone  are  positive,  authoritative, 
independent,  and  in  a  word  potent,  or  which  possess 
any  intrinsic  energy. 

These  two  competing  systems,  utterly  incompa- 
tible one  with  the  other,  as  they  are,  and  founded 
upon  principles  exclusive  one  of  the  other,  and 
which  have  never  consisted  the  one  with  the  other, 
even  for  a  day,  have  been  brought  into  vehement 


CHRISTIANITY.  237 

collision  by  the  controversies  of  the  last  seven  years. 
It  is  a  collision  for  which  all  things,  although  we 
saw  it  not  beforehand,  were  ripe  ;  and  the  issue  of 
which  must  speedily  bisect  the  professedly  Christian 
world  ;  and  at  no  very  remote  period  after  this 
partition  has  been  effected,  one  of  the  two  must 
meet  its  fate. 

We  shall  not  incur  the  risk  of  being  accused  of 
misrepresentation  in  attempting  any  definition  or 
description  of  that  one  of  these  forms  which  we 
regard  as  antichristian.  But  how  imperfectly  so- 
ever our  task  in  the  present  instance  may  have  been 
performed,  we  can  scarcely  have  altogether  failed 
to  convey,  in  an  intelligible  manner,  what  we  regard 
as  essential  to  that  other  form  of  our  religion  which 
we  assume  to  be  alone  genuine,  apostolic,  and 
spiritual ; — the  Christianity  which,  as  we  believe, 
will  be  found  in  the  inspired  pages,  by  those  who, 
in  humble  reliance  upon  the  teaching  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  give  themselves  to  the  serious  perusal  of  the 
only  authentic  Rule  of  Faith. 


NOTES. 


NOTE  TO  PAGE  51. 

EVEN  if  we  were  to  apply  the  phrase  "  Moral 
Evidence"  in  the  vague  manner  in  which  it  is  often 
applied  to  human  testimony,  under  whatever  circum- 
stances rendered ;  it  must  be  granted,  in  very  many 
instances,  to  reach  the  highest  point  of  certainty.  If 
many  hundred  persons,  in  dismay  and  disorder,  pass 
my  gate  during  the  day,  and  all  affirm  the  same  thing — 
That  London  has  been  destroyed  by  an  earthquake ; 
— if  some  of  these  homeless  persons  coolly  and  par- 
ticularly describe  the  catastrophe,  while  the  phrenzied 
shrieks  of  others  attest  the  fact  in  another  manner — is 
this  amount  of  testimony  to  be  held  as  still  questiona- 
ble, because  it  is  nothing  more  than  "  moral  evidence  ?" 
At  the  moment  when  the  first  band  of  these  wanderers 
came  up,  I  might  have  been  employed  in  following  a 
mathematical  demonstration.  In  turning  from  Euclid 
to  listen  to  these  tales  of  woe,  I  do  indeed  turn  from 
one  species  of  proof  to  another  ;  but  do  I  also  descend 
from  certainties  to  mere  probabilities  ?  None  would 
say  this. 

As  to  facts  transmitted  by  books,  the  certainty  of 
them  may  be  of  the  very  highest  kind,  even  when  the 


240  NOTES. 

mass  of  evidence,  or  its  apparent  bulk,  is  very  small. 
In  such  instances  certainty  results  from  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case  ;  and  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  it  is  in  no  degree  liable  to  be  lessened  by  mere 
lapse  of  time.  The  existence  of  Shakspeare's  Rich- 
ard III.,  in  the  time  of  James  I.,  may  now  be  ascer- 
tained without  a  doubt; — but,  supposing  our  litera- 
ture to  pass  down  entire  to  a  distant  age,  the  proof  of 
this  fact  will  be  as  good  then,  as  it  is  to-day.  Or 
otherwise  to  state  the  same  case,  we  may  now  be 
as  sure  of  the  antiquity  of  the  "  Clouds"  of  Aristo- 
phanes, as  we  are  of  the  date  of  the  "  Merry  Wives 
of  Windsor."  And  if  a  question  relate  to  the  genu- 
ineness of  a  single  verse,  a  very  small  amount  of  sat- 
isfactory critical  proof,  may  be  enough  to  exclude  all 
reasonable  scepticism,  and  to  warrant  the  decision — 
"  It  is  absolutely  certain  that  this  verse  was  from  the 
hand  of  the  author." 

We  greatly  misjudge  historical  questions — 

— When  we  assume  them  to  be  not  susceptible  of 
conclusive  proof  because  established  by  Testimony, 
or  Moral  Evidence  : — 

— When  we  hesitate  to  receive  them  as  certain  on 
account  of  the  mere  lapse  of  Time  ;  or — 

— When  we  suppose  historical  certainty  to  depend 
upon  the  larger  or  the  smaller  amount,  or  bulk  of  the 
evidence  adduced.  Good  proof  is  good,  whether  it 
fill  half  a  page,  or  a  volume  ;  and  whether  it  have 
stood  on  a  page  fifty,  or  two  thousand  years. 


NOTES.  241 

NOTE  TO  PAGB  58. 

THAT  corruption  of  the  Christian  religion  which  its 
inspired  teachers  predicted  as  immediately  to  follow 
its  first  promulgation,  is  in  one  of  these  prophetic  pas- 
sages called  a  "mystery  of  iniquity,"  which  is  the 
inspired  designation  also  of  the  ripened  "  abomina- 
tions" of  the  Papacy  ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  this 
endeavour  to  hold  back  the  Truth — to  "  reserve"  the 
principal  elements  of  Christianity  for  a  privileged  class, 
has  been  the  characteristic  of  each  successive  form  of 
the  apostasy  from  the  second  century  to  the  nineteenth. 
Not  less  remarkable  is  the  progression  of  these  en- 
deavours from  what  was  a  very  natural  imitation  of 
the  philosophic  economy  of  the  same  age,  to  its  con- 
summation in  the  stern  spiritual  despotism  which 
lodged  the  key  of  knowledge  in  the  hands  of  the 
"  Vicar  of  Christ." 

Instead  of  "  preaching  the  Gospel"  to  the  people, 
without  reserve,  and  in  all  simplicity,  as  the  Apostles 
had  done,  the  Rulers  of  the  Church,  ambitious  of  the 
dignity  belonging  to  the  teachers  of  a  profound  enig- 
matic doctrine,  drew  a  line  around  themselves  and  the 
favoured  few — the  "  initiated,"  to  whom  the  depths  of 
this  new  philosophy  were  to  be  opened.  But  this  pro- 
ceeding, was  alone  enough  to  vitiate,  the  Christian 
ministry,  compelling,  as  it  did,  the  Teacher  to  impart 
to  the  mass  of  the  people  something  less  than  the 
Truth,  and  to  the  initiated — something  more.  The 
21 


242  NOTES. 

great  principles  of  the  Gospel  were  regarded  as  too 
sacred  for  the  populace,  and  were  felt  to  be  too  sim- 
ple— or  too  little  in  the  style  of  the  philosophy  of  the 
age,  to  satisfy  the  "  itching  ears  "  of  those  who  ex- 
pected profundities. 

When  the  gnostic  infection  was  admitted  by  the 
Church,  it  brought  with  it  a  rule  of  caste  still  more 
injurious  in  its  effects  ;  for  it  assumed  the  fact  of  a 
natural  inequality  among  men — as  "  spiritual,"  or  as 
"  physical"  and  animal,  by  destination  of  birth.  The 
mass  of  men  could  never  be  taught — "  the  Truth." 
This  doctrine,  directly  opposed  as  it  is  to  the  first 
principle  of  the  Gospel,  could  not  consist  with  even 
an  approximation  to  apostolic  simplicity  and  evangelic 
zeal.  From  the  time  that  it  gained  ascendancy  in  the 
Church,  little  was  seen  within  it  but  spiritual  arro- 
gance, on  the  part  of  the  few,  and  the  most  abject 
prostration  of  the  many  at  the  feet  of  the  clergy  and 
the  monks. 

Under  the  ascetic  discipline,  which  reached  its  ma- 
ture condition  in  the  fourth  century,  the  gnostic  princi- 
ple of  reserving  "  Truth"  as  the  distinction  of  a  class, 
assumed  the  distinctness  proper  to  the  rules  of  a  visible 
institute.  The  monks  were  the  only  Christians,  in 
the  full  sense  of  the  term ;  while  the  herd  of  mankind 
might  be  allowed  to  gather  the  crumbs  of  instruction, 
that  fell  from  their  master's  table. 

The  last  step  of  this  doctrine  of  darkness  was  that 
which  confided  all  knowledge  to  the  keeping  of  "  the 


NOTE  S. 

Church,"  that  is  to  say — of  the  hierarchy,  governed 
by  a  single  will,  and  armed  with  absolute  and  terrible 
powers,  secular  and  spiritual.  It  is  not  easy  to  fix  the 
moment  at  which  this  empire  of  night  dates  its  com- 
mencement ;  but  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury may  be  named  as  the  hour  of  the  most  pitchy 
blackness. 


NOTE  TO  PAGE  100. 

THE  PROTESTANT  Church  of  England  does  not 
simply  affirm  the  "  Romish  doctrine "  concerning 
"  worshipping  and  adoration,  as  well  of  Images  as  of 
Relics,  and  also  Invocation  of  Saints,"  to  be  "  a  fond 
thing ;"  but  that  these  superstitions — elsewhere  point- 
edly and  universally  reprobated,  had  been  "  vaitily 
invented"  By  whom  then  invented  1  It  is  not  the 
usage  of  ingenuous  writers  or  speakers,  when  they 
would  designate  those  who  may  have  given  the  last 
finish  to  a  work  which  others  had  long  before  origina- 
ted, to  call  them  its  inventors.  Whatever  absurdities 
may  have  attached  to  the  "  Romish  "  doctrine  of  the 
invocation  of  saints,  or  to  the  "  Romish  "  practice  of 
the  adoration  of  relics — the  doctrine,  in  its  plenitude 
of  impiety,  and  the  practice,  with  all  its  shocking 
enormities,  are  at  least  as  ancient  as  that  age  from 
which  it  is  said  we  should  do  well  to  learn  our  divinity, 
and  our  modes  of  worship,  rather  than  from  the  age 
of  the  Reformation. 


244  NOTES. 

This  now  professed  preference  can  mean  nothing, 
if  it  does  not  mean  that  the  invocation  of  saints,  and 
the  worshipping  of  relics  which  the  Reformers  indig- 
nantly rejected,  and  which  the  Nicene  divines  as 
sedulously  promoted,  should  be,  by  ourselves,  reli- 
giously restored. 

Finding  the  intended  limits  of  this  volume  already 
exceeded,  I  am  compelled  to  refer  the  reader  for  the 
evidence  bearing  on  this  point,  to  the  SIXTH  Number 
of  "  Ancient  Christianity,"  in  which  a  sample  of  the 
frightful  idolatries  of  the  fourth  century  is  furnished. 
These,  I  think,  will  bear  out  the  assertion, "That,  if 
the  Christianity  of  the  Nicene  Church  were  restored 
in  England,  the  difference  between  England,  and 
Spain,  Italy,  or  Belgium,  would  be  perceptible  only  to 
the  keenest  eyes.  Antiquity  and  Romanism  differ  not 
so  much  as  the  Religion  of  English  Roman  Catholics 
differs  from  the  Popery  of  Irish  Roman  Catholics.  And 
in  truth  the  gross  superstitions  and  shocking  abuses 
of  the  fourth  century  far  more  nearly  resemble  Irish, 
than  they  do  English  Catholicism.  It  were  therefore 
better  for  us  to  accept  these  same  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices in  their  modern,  than  in  their  ancient  guise. 
Both  however  are  absolutely  exclusive  of-  apostolic 
Christianity. 

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STED.  One  handsome  volume,  J2mo. 

The  various  publication*  before  the  public,  illustrating'  our  marine  and  naval  history,  have  never, 
•we  believe,  as  yet  entered  into  the  jjiinutiae  of  a  whaling  voyage — a  whale  ship,  its  equipments,  dis- 
cipline, and  course  of  operations  m  the  internal  economy  and  varied  contingencies,— until  the  appear- 
ance of  the  present  volume,  by  one  who  has  some  pretensions  to  science,  both  in  the  philosophy  of 
nature  and  education.  The  work  indeed  only  presents  the  events  of  a  single  voyage,  but  is  blended 
with  so  much  of  incidental  history,  abounding  in  facts  relative  to  the  Islands  of  the  Pacific,  the  Mis- 
sionary stations  there,  and  the  effects  of  civilization  upon  the  untutored  natives  of  the  South,  together 
with  the  illustrations  of  the  whale  fishery,  as  to  embody  a  muss  of  intelligence,  interesting  to  the 
ordinary  reader  as  well  as  t  the  philosophical  inquirer.  The  author  is  a  son  of  Professor  Olmsted, 
of  Yale  College,  who,  in  the  pursuit  of  health,  in  a  long  voyage,  has  noted  the  observations  to  which 
we  refer." — JV.  Y.  Courier. 

MRS.    AUSTIN'S  GERMAN   WRITERS. 

Fragments  from  German  Prose  Writers,  translated  by  Mrs.  Austin.     Illustrated  with  Biographical 

and  Critical  Notes.     1  vol.  12mo.     Elegantly  printed  on  fine  white  paper. 

"  Those  who  wish  to  close  a  book  with  the  comfortable  feeling  that  no  new  idea  has  been  suggested, 
and  no  old  one  disturbed,  will  regard  this  as  very  questionable  praise  ;  but  those  who  read  in  order  to 
be  made  to  think,  will,  I  hope,  derive  some  satisfaction  from  the  fragments  thus  thrown  together. 
The  choice  of  these  passages  has  been  determined  by  considerations  as  various  as  their  character  and 
their  subjects.  In  some  it  was  the  value  of  the  matter,  in  others  the  beauty  of  the  form  that  struck 
me  ;  in  some  the  vigorous,  unaffected  good  sense,  in  others  the  fantastic  and  mystical  charm.  Some  re- 
called familiar  trains  of  thought  which  meet  us  in  a  foreign  literature  like  old  friends  in  a  fax  country, 
others  altogether  new  and  strange."—  Vide  Preface. 

THE    NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SOCIETY, 

IN   THE    BARBAROUS   AND   CIVILIZED   STATE. 

An  Essay  towards  discovering  the  Origin  and  Course  of  Human  Improvement.  By  W.  COOKE  TAY- 
LOR, LL.D.,  &c.,  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  Handsomely  printed  on  fine  paper.  2  vols.  12mo. 
"  A  most  able  work,  the  design  of  which  is  to  determine  from  an  examination  of  the  various  forms 
in  which  society  has  been  formed,  what  was  the  origin  of  civilization,  and  under  what  circumstances 
those  attributes  of  humanity,  which  in  one  country  be9ome  the  foundation  of  social  happiness,  and  in 
another  perverted  to  the  production  of  general  misery.  For  this  purpose  the  author  has  separately 
examined  the  principal  elements  by  which  society,  under  all  its  aspects,  is  held  together,  and  traced 
each  to  its  source  in  human  nature.  He  has  then  directed  attention  to  the  development  of  these  prin- 
ciples, and  pointed  out  the  circumstances  by  which  they  were  perfected  on  the  one  hand,  or  corrupted 
on  the  other." 

"  We  perceive  by  the  preface  that  the  work  has  had  throughout  the  superintendence  of  the  very 
learned  Archbishop  Whately."—  Literary  Gazette. 

PALMER'S  TREATISE  ON  THE  CHURCH. 

A  TREATISE  oh  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST.  Designed  chiefly  for  the  use  of  Students  in  Theology 
By  the  Rev.  William  Palmer,  M.  A.,  of  Worcester  College,  Oxford.  Edited,  with  Notes,  by  the 
Right  Rev.  W.  R  Whittingham,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Diocese 
of  Maryland.  2  vols.  8vo.,  handsomely  printed  on  fine  paper. 

"  The  treatise  of  Mr.  Palmer  is  the  best  exposition  and  vindication  of  Church  Principles,  that  we 
have  ever  read  ;  excelling  contemporaneous  treatises  in  depth  of  learning  and  solidity  of -judgment  as 
much  as  it  excels  older  treatises  on  the  like  subjects  in  adaptation  to  the  wants  and  habits  of  the  age. 
Of  its  influence  in  England,  where  it  has  passed  through  two  editions,  we  have  not  the  means  to  form 
an  opinion  ;  but  we  believe  that  in  this  country  it  has  already,  even  before  its  reprint,  done  more  to 
restore  the  sound  tone  of  Catholic  principle  and  feeling  than  any  other  one  work  of  the  age.  The  author's 
learning  and  powers  of  combination  and  arrangement,  great  as  they  obviously  are,  are  less  remarkable 
than  the  sterling  good  sense,  the  vigorous  and  solid  judgment,  which  is  everywhere  manifest  in  the 
treatise,  and  confers  on  it  its  distinctive  excellence.  The  style  of  the  author  is  distinguished  for  dig- 
nity and  masculine  energy,  while  his  tone  is  everywhere  natural  ;  on  proper  occasions,  reverential ; 
and  always,  so  far  as  we  remember,  sufficiently  conciliatory. 

"To  our  clergy  and  intelligent  laity  who  desire  to  see  the  Church  justly  discriminated  from  Roman- 
ists on  the  one  hand,  and  dissenting  denominations  on  the  other,  we  earnestly  commend  PALMER'S 
TREATISE  ON  THE  CHURCH."— N.  Y.  Churchman. 

HARE'S    PAROCHIAL    SERMONS. 

Sermons  to  a  Country  Congregation.     By  Augustus  William  Hare,  A.M.  late  Fellow  01  New  Cohege, 

and  Rector  of  Alton  Barnes.     1  vol.  royal  8vo. 

"  Any  one  who  can  be  pleased  with  delicacy  of  thought  expressed  in  the  most  simple  language — 
any  one  who  can  feel  the  charm  of  finding  practical  duties  elucidated  and  enforced  by  apt  and  varied 
illustrations- will  be  delighted  with  this  volume,  which  presents  us  with  the  workings  of  a  pious  aud 
.Uighly-gifttd  miud." — fiuarterly  Review. 


VALUABLE   PUBLICATIONS.  I 

MAQEE  ON    ATONEMENT  AND   SACRIFICE. 

Discourses  and  Dissertations  on  the  Scriptural  Doctrines  of  Atonrinrn:  :u,.;  s  u  rifloc,  and  on  the  Pn«- 
cipal  Arguments  advanced,  and  the  Mode  of  Reasoning  employed  by  the  Opponent*  of  thaw  dw 
trines,  as  held  by  the  Established  Church.  By  the  late  Most  Rev.  William  Magee,  D.D.,  Archbnhop 
of  Dublin.  2  vols.  royal  8vo.,  beautifully  printed. 

"This  is  one  of  the  ablest  ciitical  and  polemical  works  of  modern  timet.  Archbishop  Maf««  M 
truly  a  malleus  kereticolum.  He  is  an  excellent  scholar,  an  ami  if;  n-ajumer.  anil  i«  fMM<wm«d  of  »  mo«t 
extensive  acquaintance  with  the  wide  Held  of  argument  to  which  h;«  volumes  are  devoted— the  pro- 
found Biblical  information  on  a  variety  of  topics  which  the  Archbishop  bring!  forward,  n»u»t  eMMCT 
his  name  to  all  lovers  of  Christianity."—  Oiine. 

DEVOTIONAL    LIBRARY. 

The  greatest  care  is  taken  in  selecting  the  works  of  which  this  collection  is  com- 
posed.  Each  volume  is  printed  on  the  finest  paper,  elegantly  ornamented,  and 
bound  in  a  superior  manner,  and  uniform  in  size.  Bishop  Doanc  says  of  thU 
collection,  "  I  write  to  express  my  thanks  to  you  for  reprints  of  the  Oxford 
Books ;  first,  for  such  books,  and  secondly,  in  such  a  style.  I  sincerely  hope 
you  may  be  encouraged  to  go  on,  and  give  them  all  to  us.  You  will  dignify  the 
art  of  printing,  and  you  will  do  great  service  tq  the  best  interest  of  the  country. 
In  a  letter  received  from  Bishop  Whittingham,  he  says,  "  I  had  forgotten  to 
state  my  very  great  satisfaction  at  your  commencement  of  a  series  oi 
tional  Works,  lately  rcpublished  in  Oxford."  The  publishers  beg  to  state  while 
in  so  short  a  time  this  library  has  increased  to  so  many  volumes,  they  are  encou- 
raged to  make  yet  larger  additions,  and  earnestly  hope  it  may  receive  all  the 
encouragement  it  deserves. 

The  following  volumes  have  already  appeared : 
THE   EARLY   ENGLISH   CHURCH. 

Or  Christian  History  of  England  in  early  British,  Saxon,  and  Norman  Times.     By  the  Rev 

Churton,  M.A.     With  a  Preface  by  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Ives.     1  vol.  16n»o.  elegantly  oruanMnUd 

LEARN   TO  DIE. 

DLsce  Mori,  Learn  to  Die  :  a  Religious  Discourse,  moving1  every  Christian  man  to  enter  into  m  s^rioos 
Remembrance  of  his  End.  By  Christopher  Sutton,  D.D.,  late  Prebend  of  Westminster.  1  vol. 
16mo.,  elegantly  ornamented. 

SACRA   PRIVATA: 

The  Private  Meditations,  Devotions,  and  Prayers  of  the  Right  Rev.  T.  Wilson.  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of 
Soder  and  Man.  First  complete  edition.  1  vol.  royal  IGmo.,  elegantly  ornamented. 

MEDITATIONS  ON   THE  SACRAMENT. 

Godly  Meditations  upon  the  most  Holy  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  By  Christopher  8«ttw, 
D.D.,  late  Prebend  of  Westminster.  1  vol.  royal  16mo.,  elegantly  ornamented. 

HEART'S   EASE; 

Or  a  Remedy  against  all  Trouble*, 
WITH  A   CONSOLATORY   DI8COUR:- 

Particularly  addressed  to  those  who  have  lost  their  friends  and  dear  relations.  By  Strnow  Patrict, 
D.D.,  sometime  Lord  Bishop  of  Ely.  1  vol.  royal  16mo.,  elegantly  ornamented. 

A   DISCOURSE  CONCERNING   PRAYER 

And  the  frequenting  Daily  Public  Prayers.  By  Symon  Patrick.  D.D..  sometime  Low!  Bishop  at  EJf. 
Edited  by  Francis  E.  Paget,  M.A  ,  Chaplain  to  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Oxford.  1  tol  royal  l6mo.,  •!• 
gantly  ornameated. 

THOUGHTS    IN    PAST  YEARS. 

A  beautiful  collection  of  Poetry,  chiefly  Devotional.  By  the  Author  of  "The  Cathedral."  1  »d. 
royal  16mo.,  elegantly  printed. 

*#*  These  volumes  will  be  followed  by  other*  of  fqual  i 


D.  APPLETON  &  GO'S 


SCHLEGEL'S   PHILOSOPHY    OF    HISTORY. 

The  Philosophy  of  History,  in  a  course  of  Lectures  delivered  at  Vienna,  by  FREDEIUCX  VON  SCHLB- 
GEL,  translated  from  the  German,  with  a  Memoir  of  the  Author,  by  J.  B.  ROBERTSON.  Handsomely 
printed  on  fine  paper.  2  vols.  12mo. 

"A  masterly  production— written  in  that  flowing,  elegant  style,  so  characteristic  of  the  German 
school.  In  fact,  diligent  investigation,  accurate  discernment,  sound  judgment  and  elegant  taste,  will 
to  found  employed  in  every  page.  Our  readers  may  rely  upon  our  word  that  a  perusal  of  these  pagei 
•A  ill  yield  them  an  ample  harvest  of  pleasure  ami  advantage."—  Quarterly  Review. 

THE   LIFE  OF  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON. 

Edited  by  his  son,  John  C  Hamilton.     2  vols.  royal  8vo. 

"  We  cordially  recommend  the  perusal  ?.nd  diligent  study  of  these  volumes,  exhibiting,  as  they  do, 
much  valuable  matter  relative  to  the  Revolution,  the  establishment  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and 
other  important  events  ^n  the  annals  of  our  country."— New-York  Review. 

THE    METROPOLITAN    PULPIT; 

'•>:•  Sketches  of  the  most  Popular  Preachers  in  London.  By  the  author  of  Random  Recollections,  Th« 
Great  Metropolis,  &c.  &c.  1  vol.  12mo. 

CARLYLE   ON    HISTORY   AND    HEROES. 

1  >«  Heroes,  Hero- Worship,  and  the  Heroic  in  History.  Six  Lectures,  reported  with  Emendations  aad 
Additions,  by  Thomas  Carlyle,  Author  of  the  F«uch  Revolution,  Sartor  Resartus,  &c.  Elegantly 
;>rinted  in  1  vol.  12mo. 

•'  A  masterly  production. — Even  the  single  lecture  to  which  we  shall  confine  our  office,  is,  we  feel, 
t  greater  theme  than  can  be  sufficiently  illustrated  at  our  hands.  We  have  elsewhere  noticed  a  nevr 
uition  of  Sartor  Resartus,  by  the  same  author.  It  is  a  very  remarkable  work,  though  we  must  con- 
jV-ss  somewhat  too  German  and  transcendental  for  our  taste.  We  rejoice  to  say  that  we  find  no  such 
liifficulties  besetting  us  in  these  disquisitions  on  hu/oes.  They  are  in  truth  philosophical  enough, 
:.brupt  enough,  tearing  enough  ;  but  their  philosophy  is  clear,  distinct,  and  intelligible  ;  their  abrupt- 
ness is  the  vigor  of  Demosthenes  ;  their  tearing  the  acts  of  a  giant  who  has  a  wilderness  to  burst 
through  and  open  to  the  rest  of  mankind," — Literary  Gazette. 

GUIZOT'S    HISTORY   OF  CIVILIZATION. 

General  History  of  Civilization  in  Europe,  from  the  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  the  French  Revo- 
lution. Translated  from  the  French  of  M.  Guizot,  Professor  of  History  to  la  Faculte  des  Lettres 
of  Paris,  and  Minister  of  Public  Instruction.  2d  American,  from  the  last  London  edition.  1  vol. 

ISaa 

>(  We  hail  with  pleasure  the  republication  of  this  able  work.  It  is  terse  and  full,  and  adverts  to 
the  most  interesting  topic  in  the  social  relations  of  mankind,  the  progressive  improvement  of  the  Eu- 
ropean  nations  from  the  overthrow  of  the  Roman  Empire  by  the  Goths,  and  Huns,  and  Vandals,  in  th» 
Fifth  Century."— N.  Y.  American. 

SOUTH£Y'S   POETJCAL  WORKS. 

The  Complete  Poetical  Works  of  Robert  Southe-y,  Esq.  LJL.D,  The  ten  volume  London  edition  in 
one  elegant  royal  8vo.  volume,  with  a  fine  portrait  and  vignette. 

***  This  edition,  which  the  author  has  arranged  and  revised  with  tho  same  care  as  if  it  were  in- 
:r.ided  for  posthumous  publication,  includes  many  pieces  which  either  have  never  before  been  collect- 
ed, or  have  hitherto  remained  unpublished. 

Preliminary  notices  are  affixed  to  the  long  poems, — the  whole  of  the  notes  retained,— and  Such 
additional  ones  incorporated  as  the  author,  since  the  first  publication,  has  seen  occasion  to  insert 

Contents : 

JOAN  OF  ARC.  THE  CURSE  OF  KEHAMA. 

JUVENILE  AND  MINOR  POEMS.  RODERICK  THE  LAST  OF  THE  GOTHS 

THALABA  THE  DESTROYER.  THE  POET'S  PILGRIMAGE  TO  WATEBLOO. 

MADOC.  LAY  OF  THE  LAUREATE. 

BALLADS  AND  METRICAL  TALES.  VISION  OF  JUDGMENT,  &e. 

"At  the  age  of  sixty-three  I  have  undertaken  ta  collect  and  edit  my  poetical  works,  with  the  last 
'•orrections  that  I  can  expect  to  bestow  upon  them.  They  have  obtained  a  reputation  equal  to  my 

~vish.es Thus  to  collect  and  revise  them  is  a  duty  which  1  owe  to  that  part  of  the  public  by  whom 

they  have  been  auspiciously  received,   and  to  those  who  will  take  a  lively  concern  in  my  good  name 
when  I  shall  have  departed." — Extract  from  Author's  Preface. 

"  The  critic  has  little  to  do  but  to  point  out  the  existence  of  the  work,  the  beauty  of  the  type  and 
embellishments,  and  the  cheapness  of  the  cost  ;  the  public  has  long  ago  acknowledged  its  merit  and 

established  its  reputation The  author  of  the  'Life  :>f  Nelson'  must  live  as  long  as  our  history 

and  language  endure.     There  is  no  man  to  whom  the  latter  owes  a  greater  obligation — no  man  who 
.has  done  more  for  literature  by  his  genius,  his  labours,  and  his  life." — Times. 

"  We  are  very  glad  to  see  the  works  of  a  poet,  for  whom,  we  have  always  felt  the  warmest  admira- 
tion, follected,  and  in  a  shade  which  will  ensure  their  popularity."— Literary  Gazette. 

il  Southey's  principal  poetical  works  have  beeu  lojia  before  the  vrotld,  extensively  read  and  highly 


VALUABLE  PUBLICATIONS. 

appreciated.     Their  appearance  in  a  neat  and  uniform  edition,  with  the  final  corrections  of  the  a«tbor 

ill  afford  unfeigned  pleasui 


ire  to  those  who  are  '  married  to  immortal  verse.'"—  __ 

•  The  beauties  of  Mr.  Southey's  poetry  are  such  that  this  edition  can  hardly  (Ail  to  find  a  place  ift 
the  library  of  every  man  fond  of  elegant  literature."—  EcUctic  Rrvitio. 

SCRIPTURE  AND  GEOLOGY. 

On   the  Relation  between  the   Holy  Scriptures  and  some  parts  of  Geological  Science.    By  JOB* 
PYE  SMITH,  D.D.,  author  of  the  Scripture  Testimony  of  the  Messiah,  <tc.  Ac.    1  TO!,  l&no. 
"  The  volume  consists  of  eight  lectures,   to  which  are   appended  seventy  pages  of  tupplrtnf  ntarr 
notes.     The  first  lecture  is  introductory  ;  the  second  is  scientifically  descriptive  of  the  principal  topics 
of  geological  science  ;  the  third  includes  a  research  into  the  creation  of  our  globe  ;  the  fourth  and  fifth 
lectures  comprise  an  examination  of  the  deluge  ;  the  sixth  discusses  the  apparent  dissonance  hetwera 
the  decisions  of  geologists,  and  the  hitherto  received  interpretation  of  Scripture,  with  ait  additional 
exposition  of  the  diluvial   theory  ;  the  seventh  is  devoted  to  illustration  of  the  method  U>  int- 
Scriptures,  so  that  they  may  harmonize  with  the  discoveries  of  geology  ;  the  eighth  is  the  peroratum 
of  the  whole  disquisition  " 

TOUR  THROUGH   TURKEY   AND   PERSIA. 

Narrative  of  a  Tour  through  Armenia,  Kurdistan,  Persia,  and  Mesopotamia,  with  an  Introduction  and 
Occasional  Observations  upon  the  Condition  of  Mohammedanism  and  Christianity  in  those  countries 
By  the  Rev.  HORATIO  SOUTHQATE,  Missionary  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church.    8  Tols.  llmo., 
plates. 
"An  exceedingly  interesting  book  of  travels,  which  no  reader  will  be  very  likely  to  lay  by  /or  good 

till  he  has  seen  the  end  of  it.     It  contains  a  vast  amount  of  information,  religious  and  general,  aad  is 

written  in  a  style  of  perfect  case  and  simplicity.    It  deserves,  and  we  doubt  not  will  gain,  an  extensive 

circulation."  —  Albany  Advertiser. 

SCOTLAND  AND  THE  SCOTCH. 

Or  the  Western  Circuit 
By  CATHERINK  SINCLAIR,  author  of  Modern  Accomplishments,  Modern  Society,  Ac.  Ac.    1  TO!.  12mo 

SHETLAND  AND  THE  SHETLANDERS. 

Or  the  Northern  Circuit. 

By  CATHERINE  SINCLAIR,  author  of  Scotland  and  the  Scotch,  Holiday  House,  Ac.  Ac.  1  rol.  IJroo. 
"  Miss  Sinclair  has  already  proved  herself  to  be  a  lady  of  high  talent  and  rich  cultivated  wind.  She 
thinks  with  precision  and  vigor,  and  she  possesses  the  quality  of  seizing  the  objects  of  her  thoughts  IB 
the  right  place  and  at  the  proper  time,  and  of  presenting  them  to  the  muni's  eye  of  her  rtrftdei*  in  the 
most  clear  and  captivating  light.  Her  style  is  characteristic  of  her  mind,  transparent,  piquant,  aad 
lively,  yet  sustained  by  pure,  moral  and  religious  feeling."  —  New-  York  American. 

LIMITATIONS   OF    HUMAN    RESPONSIBILITY. 

By  Francis  Wayland,  D  D.    2d  edition.  1  rol.  18mo. 

THE   FLAG   SHIP; 
Or  a  Voyage  round  the  World, 

In  the  United  States  Frigate  Columbia,  attended  by  her  consorl,  the  Sloop  of  War  John  Adams,  and 
bearing  the  broad  pennant  of  Commodore  George  C.  Read.  By  FITCH  W.  TATLO*,  Chaplain  to  the 
Squadron.  2  vols.  12rno.,  plates. 

"  This  work  has  been  some  time  before  the  public  ;  but  if  in  consequence  of  our  lst«  notice,  it  shall 
afford  to  any  reader  the  very  great  pleasure  and  profit  wh.ch  its  peruml  has  jrjYf  n  us,  we  are  snr.  he 
will  think  it  better  late  than  never.  The  recoWs  of  a  voyage  around  the  world,  made  by  a  •••.*** 
in  miiifflme-  with  the  various  and  wonderful  scenes  it  must  present,  ha*  hud  : 


ai      o    e    n.  ^ 

this  work  has  a  far  higher  claim  to  regard.  Its  literary  character  is  certainly  »ery  respectable,  and  the 
benevolent  "spirit  and  Christian  interest  with  which  the  v:med  incidents  ,,f  *  T.sit  to  alroort  "try**- 
£  on  the  Sobe  were  regarded,  give  the  book  an  unwuni  -  ab.l.l.ty  to  mmr  IheiaeMl 

aspect"  of  the  world,  »  a  qualifica.,»n  of  which  the  far  frejUer  Part  of  traveller,  are  utterlj 
Probably  since  the  valuable  journal  of  Tyi-rman.  and  Bennett    there  ha.  be.»  ,  no  other 
which  exhibits  so  satisfactory  a  view  of  the  Chi  ist.un  missions  of  the  world  as  this,    1 
to  interest  its  readers  not  only,  but  greatly  to  instruct  then,    ami  e,p,c,.lly  to  awakea  a  deep  ud 
lively  sympathy  for  the  moral  wants  and  miseries  of  the  world.  — 

WORKS   BY  ISAAC  TAYLOR. 

HOME    EDUCATION. 

By  Isaac  Taylor,  author  of  "  Natural  History  ^Enthusiasm,"  Ac.  Ac.    Second  edit 


£  D.  APPLETON  &,  CO.'S 

>nited  to  the  circumstances  of  a  country  residence  ;  at  the  same  time,  hints  are  offered  of  a  kind  to  b» 
•tv;iilable  under  any  circumstances  for  carrying  on  the  culture  of  those  of  the  intellectual  faculties  thaS 
•\rr  the  earliest  developed,  and  on  the  due  expansion  of  which  the  force  and  efficiency  of  the  mature 
jiii.ifl  depend. 

•'  A  very  enlightened,  just,  and  Christian  view  of  a  most  important  subject." — American  Bib.  Rep, 

SPIRITUAL   CHRISTIANITY. 

Lectures  on  Spiritual  Christianity.     By  Isaac  Taylor,  author  of  "  Spiritual  Despotism,"  &c.  &c. 

1  vol.  12iuo. 

"This  work  is  the  production  of  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  accomplished  minds  of  the  present  age. 
It*  some  of  his  former  productions  may  have  been  thought  characterized  by  too  much  of  metaphysical 
iljstraction,  and  in  some  instances,  by  speculations  of  doubtful  importance,  the  present  volume  is,  we 
•hiuk,  in  no  degree  liable  lo  this  objection.  It  is  indeed  distinguished  for  deep  thought  and  accurate 
discrimination  ;  and  whoever  would  read  it  to  advantage,  must  task  his  faculties  in  a  much  higher  de- 
-.free  than  in  reading  ordinary  books  ;  and  yet  it  contains  nothing  which  an  ordinary  degree  of  intelli- 
gence and  application  may  not  readily  comprehend.  The  view  which  it  gives  of  Christianity,  both  as 
,t  system  of  truth  and  a  system  of  duty,  is  in  the  highest  degree  instructive;  and  its  tendencies  are 
Mot  less  to  quicken  the  intellectual  faculties,  than  to  direct  and  elevate  the  moral  sensibilities.  We 
nave  no  doubt  that  it  will  be  read  with  great  interest  by  those  who  read  to  find  materials  for  thought, 
md  that  it  is  destined  to  exert  a  most  important  influence,  especially  on  the  more  intellectual  classes, 
in  the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  truth  and  piety." — Albany  Evening  Journal. 

PHYSICAL  THEORY  OF  ANOTHER   LIFE. 

Sy  Isaac  Taylor,  author  of  "  Natural  History  cf  Enthusiasm."     Third  edition. 
I  vol.  12mo. 


MINIATURE  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY. 

tireat  pains  have  been  bestowed  in  the  selection  of  this  unique  Library;  it  will 
comprise  the  beet  works  of  our  venerated  authors,  published  in  an  elegant  form, 
with  a  beautiful  frontispiece,  tastefully  ornamented.  The  following  are  now 
ready ; 

GOLDSMITH.— Essays.    By  Oliver  Goldsmith. 
GOLDSMITH.— The  Vicar  of  Wakefield.    By  Oliver  Goldsmith, 

JOHNSON.— The  History  of  Rasselas,  Prince  of  Abyssinia,  a  Tale.     By  Samuel 
Johnson,  LL.D. 

OOTTIN.— Elizabeth ;  or,  the  Exiles  of  Siberia.    By  Madame  Cottin. 
The  extensive  popularity  of  this  little  tale  is  well  known. 

TOKEN  of  Affection.    Do.  of  Friendship.    Do.  of  Remembrance. 

Each  volume  consists  of  appropriate  poetical  extracts  from  the  best  writers  of  the  day. 
PURE  GOLD  from  the  Rivers  of  Wisdom.— A  collection  of  short  extracts  on  Religious 

subjects  from  the  older  writers.  Bishop  Hal!,  Sherlock,  Barrow,  Paley,  Jeremy  Taylor,  &c. 

ST.  PIERRE.— Paul  and  Virginia.    From  the  French  of  J.  B.  H,  De  St.  Pierre. 

*»*  These  volumes  will  be  followed  by  others  of  attested  me'-jt. 


EVENINGS  WITH   THE  CHRONICLERS; 

Or,  Uncle  Rupert's  Tales  of  Chivalry. 
By  R.  M.  Evans.     With  many  illustrations.     1  vol.  16tno.,  elegantly  bound. 

u  This  would  have  been,  a  volume  aflc.r  our  own  hearts,  while  we  were  younger,   and  it  is  scarcely 
M>now  when  we  are  somewhat  older.     It  discourses  of  those  things  which  charmed  all  of  us  in 
early  youth.     The  daring  deeds  of  the  Knights  and  Squires  of  feudal  warfare.     The  true  version  of 
the  "Chevy  Chase,"  the  exploiis  of  the  stout  and  stnlwsirt  Warriors  01'  England,  Scotland  and  Ger- 
many'.    In  a  word,  it  is  an  attractive  book,  nnd  rendered  more  so  to  young  readers  by  a  series  of  wood 
.engravings,  beautifully  executed,  illustrating  the  letter-press  descriptions.     There  are  seventeen  of 
'htse  plates  in  the  volume,  and  the  whole  book  is  so  excellently  printed,  and  upon  such  good   paper^ 
•  -th*t  it  is  in.  all  respects  valuable." — Courier  4-  Enquirer. 


VALUABLE  PUBLICATIONS.  7 

APPLETON'S   TALES    FOR    THE    PEOPLE    AND 
THEIR    CHILDREN. 

The  greatest  care  is  taken  in  selecting  the  works  of  which  the  collection  la  com- 
posed,  so  that  nothing  either  mediocre  in  talent,  or  immoral  in  tendency,  u  ad- 
mitted.    Each  volume  is  printed  on  the  finest  paper,  is  illustrated  with  an  elc- 
gan?  frontispiece,  and  is  bound  in  a  superior  manner,  tastefully  ornamented. 
The  following  have  already  appeared,  uniform  in  size  and  style : 

THE  POPLAR  GROVE ; 

Or,  Little  Harry  and  his  Uncle  Benjamin.    By  Mrs.  Copley,  author  of  "  Early  Friend»hip," 
&c.  &c.     1  vol.  18mo.,  beautiful  frontispiece. 


.        , 

"An  excellent  little  story  this,  showing  how  sound  sense,  honest  principles,  and  intelligent  in'lat- 
try  not  only  advance  their  possessor,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  TJiicI*  Benj:miin  the  gardener,  enable  h,m 
to  become  the  benefactor,  guide,  and  fneud  of  relations  cast  down  from  a  lofuer  sphere  in  life,  and, 
but  for  him,  witho'ii.  resource. 

"  It  is  a  tale  for  youth  of  all  classes,  that  cannot  be  read  without  profit."—  X.Y.  Amt 

EARLY  FRIENDSHIP. 
By  Mrs.  Copley.      1  vol.  I8mo.,  plates. 
«  A  charming  little  book  this  for  yo-ang  ^iris-good  counsel  conveyed  in  the  l«W£e  of 

$$St^ 

—  JV.Y".  American. 

THE  TWO  DEFAULTERS; 

Or,  a  Picture  of  the  Times.    By  Mrs.  Griffith  (of  New-  York.) 
"A  most  interesting  little  volume,  not  excelled  by  any  one  of  the  M 

MASTERMAN  READY  ; 
Or.  the  Wreck  of  the  Pacific.    Written  for  Young  Persons,  by  Capt.  Marry*.    1 

•  Well,  I  a;u  so  glad  it  is  to  be  continued.'  "-N-  Y.  Amt 

THE  PEASANT  AND  THE  PRINCE. 

By  Harriet  Martineau.    1  vol.  18ino. 

«  The  versatile  talent  of  Miss  Martinean  h,»  been  employed  ^ 
their  children  a  most  inviting  little  history  ""j^^".^ 
e  ti.iniliar  thnu  Scott's  Tales  of  a  Orand  I.  I  n,  ,      v     i  .    •   -i  u     I 


tion  will,  we  doubt  not,  be  s.iccesslul."-         .    onner. 

THE    SETTLERS    AT    HOME. 
By  Harriet  Martineau.  1  vol.  ISmo. 


any  ;i  i  ra|*  m  interest  •§  JMT- 

,,urh  irmruciacru  uy  children  as  the  former  ;  fcud  they  > 

mss^K^ss^^^^ 

WHO  SHALL  BE  GREATEST? 
A  Tale.    By  Mary  Howitt.     1  tol.  18 

-  The  great  morallesson  mcalcatcd  by  .hi.  book  i.  md,cated  by  its 


8  D.  APPPETON  &  CO.'S 

enough  through  t.he  whole  volume,  it  comes  out  at  the  close  with  most  impressive  effect.  We  need 
not  say  it  is  a  lesson  which  every  human  being  is  the  wiser  and  the  better  for  learning.  We  cordially 
recommend  the  work  to  all  who  would  desire  to  form  a  sober  and  rational  estimate  of  the  world's  en- 
joyments."— Albany  Evening  Journal. 

SOWING  AND  RE  APING- ; 

Or,  What  will  come  of  it  ?    By  Mary  Howitt.     1  vol.  18mo.,  plates. 

"We  commenced  it  with  the  intention  of  just  looking  it  over  for  the  purpose  of  writing  awcursory 
notice  ;  but  we  began  to  read,  and  so  we  went  on  to  the  fiuis.  It  is  very  interesting  ;  the  characters 
are  full  of  individuality." — JVeio  Bedford  Mercury. 

STRIVE  AND  THRIVE : 

A  Tale.    By  Mary  Howitt.     1  vol.  18mo.,  plates. 

"  The  mere  announcement  of  the  name  of  the  authoress,  will  doubtless  bring  anv  of  her  productions 
to  the  immediate  noiice  of  the  public  ;  but  Strive  and  Thrive  is  not  a  book  for  children  only,  but  can  be 
read  with  pleasure  and  advantage  by  those  of  a  more  mature  age.  It  fully  sustains  the  reputation  of 
its  predecessors.  The  style  is  easy  and  flowing,  the  language  chaste  and  beautiful,  and  the  incidents 
of  the  tale  calculated  to  keep  up  the  interest  to  the  end." — -ZV.Y".  Courier  «$•  Enquirer. 

HOPE  ON,  HOPE  EVER  ; 

Or,  the  Boyhood  of  Felix  Law.     By  Mary  Howitt.     1  vol.  18mo. 

"  A  very  neat  volume  with  the  above  title,  and  the  farther  annunciation  that  it  may  he  called  Tales 
for  the  People  and  their  Children,  has  been  written  by  Mary  Howitt,  whose  name  is  so  favourably 
known  to  the  reading  community. 

"  This  volume,  like  all  others  "that  emanate  from  the  pen  of  this  lady  is  extremely  interesting  :  the 
characters  are  naturally  drawn,  while  the  feeling  arid  passion  displayed,  give  the  woik  a  higher  rank 
than  is  usually  allotted  to  nursery  tales." — Commercial  Advertiser. 

THE  LOOKING-G-LASS  FOR  THE  MIND; 
Or,   Intellectual  Mirror,  being  an  elegant  collection  of  the  most  delightful  little  stories  and 

interesting  tales  :  chiefly  translated  from  that  much  admired  work  L'ami  des  Enfans;  with, 

numerous  wood  cuts.     The  twentieth  edition.     1  vol.  18mo. 

"The  stories  here  collected  are  of  a  most  interesting  character,  since  virtue  is  constantly  represented 
as  the  fountain  of  happiness,  and  vice  as  the  source  of  every  evil  :  as  a  useful  and  instructive  Looking- 
glass,  we  recommend  it  for  the  instruction  of  every  youth,  whether  Miss  or  Master  ;  it  is  a  mirror  that 
will  not  flatter  them,  or  lead  them  into  error ;  it  displays  the  follies  and  improper  pursuits  of  youthful 
hearts,  points  out  the  dangerous  paths  they  sometimes  tread,  and  clears  the  way  to  the  temple  of 
konour  and  fame. 

DINING    OUT. 
Together  with  Confessions  of  a  Maniac.    By  Mrs.  Ellis,  author  of  "  Women  of  England," 

&c.     1  vol.  18mo. 

"  T.he  tendency  of  this  little  hook  is  one  of  the  best  and  noblest.  The  scenes  and  characters  are,  it 
is  believed,  portraits,  aiming,  as  it  does,  at  the  correction  of  a  too  prevalent  vice.  It  is  expected  that  it 
•will  command,  among  the  serious  and  thinking  part  of  the  community,  as  extensive  a  popularity  as 
*  Nicholas  Nickleby,'  in  its  peculiar  circle." 

SOMERVILLE  HALL.     To  which  is  added,  RISING  TIDE. 

By  Mrs.  Ellis.     1  vol.  18mo. 

'This  little  book  has  much  to  recommend  itself.  It  contains  an  interesting  and  lesson-teaching  tale, 
which  cannot  fail  to  impress  its  prominent  features  on  many  a  breast." 

%i*  It  is  intended  to  include  in  this  series  some  of  the  best  works  in  our  language. 

A  GIFT   FROM    FAIRY   LAND. 

By  J.  K.  Paulding,  Esq.     Illustrated  with  one  hundred  unique  original  plates  by  Chapman  ;  elegantly 
bound.     1  vol.  J2mo. 

PAST     DAYS: 

A  Story  for  Children.    By  Esther  Whitlock..    Square  18mo. 

"  It  is  a  delightful,  instructive  little  book  ;  ;ind  if  the  child,  when  she  closes  the  volume,  find  her 
eyes  'red  with  weeping,'  let  her  not  be  ashamed;  one  old  enough  to  be  her  grandfather,  caught  the 
same  disease  from  the  same  source." — Philadelphia  United  States  Gazette, 

SPRING   AND   SUMMER. 

The  Juvenile  Naturalist ;  or  Walks  in  the  Country.    By  the  Rev.  B.  H.  Draper.     A  beautiful 
volume,  with  fifty  elegant  plates.     1  vol.  square,  handsomely  bound 

AUTUMN    AND   WINTER, 

The  Juvenile  Naturalist ;  or  Walks  in  the  Country.    By  the  Rev.  B.  H.  Draper.    A  beautiful 
volume,  with  many  plates,  uniform  with  "  Spring  and  Summer." 


VALUABLE  PUBLICATIONS.  9 

THE  YOUNG    N  ATU  RALI  ST'S  JOURN  EY  ; 

Or,  Travels  of  Agnes  Morton  and  her  Mamma.  By  Mrs.  Loudon.  With  many  beautiful  plti, 

THE  OLD   OAK  TREE. 

A  most  interesting  little  volume  of  practical  instruction  for  youth:  illustrated  with  nearly 
fifty  beau;;.ful  plates. 

WORKS   BY  REV.   ROBT.  PHILIP. 

THE   LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JOHN    BUNYAN, 

Author  of  The  Pilgrim's  Progress.    By  Robert  Philip.    With  a  fine  portrait.     1  vol.  12mo.    ' 

THE   LIFE  AND   OPINIONS  OF   DR.    MILNE, 

Missionary  to  China. 

Illustrated  by  Biographical  Annals  of  Asiatic  Missions,  from  Primitive  Protestant  Times  ;  intended  u 
a  Guide  to  Missionary  Spirit.     By  Robert  Philip.     1  vol.  12mo. 

"  The  name  of  Philip  has  in  this  country,  as  well  as  in  Great  Britain,  become  a  passport  to  public 
favour.  Though  the  subject  of  this  memoir  may  not  be  surrounded  with  the  same  splendid  attraction* 
as  was  that  of  the.  memoir  of  Bunyan,  yet  it  is  one  of  very  great  interest ;  and  to  the  Christian  reader, 
and  especially  to  those  who  are  deeply  interested  in  the  cause  of  missions,  it  will  probably  bear  ac'.ni- 
parison  with  almost  any  that  have  gone  before  it.  The  work  is  executed  with  great  skill,  and  emlnxlies 
a  vast  amount  of  valuable  missionary  intelligence,  besides  a  rich  variety  of  personal  incidents,  adapted 
to  gratify  not  only  the  missionary  or  the  Christian,  but  the  more  general  reader." — Albany  Adc. 

YOUNG    MAN'S   CLOSET   LIBRARY. 

By  Robert  Philip.    With  an  Introductory  Essay  by  Rev.  Albert  Barnes.    1  vol.  12mo 

LOVE  OF  THE  SPIRIT,  Traced  in  his  Work :   a  Companion  to  the  Experimental  Guide*. 
By  Robert  Philip.    1  vol.  18mo. 

DEVOTIONAL  AFD  EXPERIMENTAL  GUIDES.     By  Robert  Philip.     With  an  Intro- 
ductory Essay  by  Rev.  Albert  Barnes.    2  vols.  12mo.    Containing : 

Guide  to  the  Perplexed.  I  Guide  to  the  Doubting. 

Do        do    Devotional.  Do        do    Conscientious. 

Do       do    Thoughtful.  Do       do    Redemption. 

LADY'S  CLOSET   LIBRARY. 

AS    FOLLOWS  I 

THE  MARYS ;  or  Beauty  of  Female  Holiness.    By  Robert  Philip.    1  vol.  l^mo. 

THE  MARTHAS ;  or  Varieties  of  Female  Piety.    By  Robert  Philip.    1  *ol.  18mo. 

THE  LYDIAS ;  or  Development  of  Female  Character.    By  Robert  Philip.    1  vol.  18mo. 
The  MATERNAL  SERIES  of  the  above  popular  Library  is  now  ready,  entitled 

THE  HANNAHS  ;  or  Maternal  Influence  of  Sons.    By  Robert  Philip.     1  vol.  ISmo. 
"  The  author  of  this  work  is  known  to  the  public  as  one  of  the  most  prolific  writers  of  the  day,  and 
scarcely  any  writer  in  the  department  which  he  occupies,  has  acquired  so  extrusive  and  well-niente« 
a  popularity      The  present  volume,  as  its  title  denotes,  is  devoted  to  an  illustration  of  the  in 
of  mothers  on  their  sons  ;  and  the  subject  is  treated  with  the  same  originality  and  hmuiy  which  char- 
acterize  the   author's  other  works.     It  will  be  found  to  be  a  most  delightful  and  uselul  con,; 
the  nursery,  and  its  influence  can  hardly  fail  to  be  felt ;    first,  in  quirkeninsr  the  sens*  of  respon.i 
lity  on  the  part  of  mothers  ;   and  next,  in  forming  the  character  of  the  riuug  genermt.oa  to  a  higher 
standard  of  intelligence  and  virtue." — Evangelist. 

WORKS   BY  THE   REV.  JOHN  A.  JAMES. 

PASTORAL  ADDRESSES. 
By  Rev.  John  AngeU  James.    With  an  Introduction  by  the  Rev.  Wm.  Adam*.    1 

"We  opine  that  the  publishers  of  this  volume  made  an  accurate  calculation- *J"«  «*|*y '«*"« 
these  .Pa.to«l  Add, -esses  '-stereotyped  ;  ^^^^1^^ 

si 


10  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S 

ality  of  Mind  ;  Heavenly-Mindedness  ;  Assurance  of  Hope  ;  Praotiral  Religion  seen  in  every  thing  ; 
A  Profitable  Sabbath  ;  Christian  Obligations  ;  Life  of  Faii.ii  ;  Influence  of  eider  Christians;  Spirit  of 
Prayer;  Private  Prayer,  and  Self-Examination/"  —  Christian  Intelligencer. 

"Simple  in  their  sljle,  and  evangelical  in  their  spirit,  these  addresses  embody  most  of  those  desire- 
able  influences  which  u  zealous  pastor  wishes  to  see  operating  amongst  his  people,  and  they  are  such  as 
cannot  fail  to  be  of  great  practical  utility  to  all  who  will  bestow  upon  them  a  serious  and  thoughtful 
attention.  The  introduction  is  by  the  Rev.  William  Adams,  of  New-York,  and  is  of  itself  alone  a  suf- 
ficient guarantee  of  the  intrinsic  quality  of  the  addresses,  stamping  at  once  their  value  and  genuine- 
ness." —  Boston  Transcript. 

THE  YOUNG-  MAN  FROM  HOME. 
In  a  senes  of  Letters,  especially  directed  for  the  Moral  Advancement  of  Youth.    By  the 

Rev.  John  Angell  James.     Fifth  edition,  1  vol.  18mo. 

"  This  work,  from  the  able  and  prolific  pen  of  Mr.  James,  is  not  inferior,  we  think,  to  any  of  its  pre- 
decessors. It  contemplates  a  young  man  at  the  most  critical  pft-iod  of  life,  and  meets  him  at  every 


as  a  guide  in  the  paths  of  virtue,  as  a  guard  from  the  contagious  influence  of  vice.  Every  young 
man  who  desires  to  form  a  virtuous  and  useful  character,  should  possess  himself  of  this  admirable 
work  ;  and  every  Christian  parent,  whose  sons  are  leaving  the  paternal  mansion  for  another  home, 
should  take  care  that  they  carry  away  with  them  this  rich  treasury  of  Christian  counsel  and  instruc- 
tion." —  Albany  Advertiser. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  PROFESSOR 
Addressed  in  a  series  of  Counsels  and  Cautions  to  the  Members  of  Christian  Churches.     By 

Rev.  John  Angell  James.     1  vol.  18mo. 

"  The  author  remarks  in  this  excellent  volume  :  'When  I  look  into  the  New  Testament,  and  read 
•what  a  Christian  should  be,  and  then  look  into  the  church  of  God,  and  see  what  Christians  are,  I  am 
painfully  affected  by  observing  the  dissimilarity  ;  and  in  my  jealousy  for  the  honour  of  the  Christian 
profession,  have  made  this  effort,  perhaps  a  leeble  one,  and  certainly  an  anxious  one,  to  remove  it) 
blemishes,  to  restore  its  impaired  beauty,  and  thus  raise  its  reputation.' 

"  '  It  is  not  my  intention  to  enter  into  the  consideration  of  private,  experimental,  or  doctrinal  reli- 
gion, so  much  as  into  its  practical  parts  ;  and  to  contemplate  the  believer  rather  as  a  professor,  than  a. 
Christian,  or  at  least,  rather  as  a  Christian  in  relation  to  the  world,  than  in  his  individual  capacity,  or 
in  his  retirement.' 

"  The  following  are  the  divisions  under  which  he  treats  his  subject,  viz.  :  What  the  Christian  pro- 
fession imports  :  its  Obligation  and  Design  ;  the  Dangers  of  Self-Deception  ;  the  Young  Professor  ; 
an  attempt  to  compare  the  present  generation  of  Professors  with  others  that  have  preceded  them  ;  the 
necessity  and  importance  of  Professors  not  being  satisfied  with  low  degrees  of  Piety,  and  of  their  seek- 
ing to  attain  to  eminence  ;  the  duty  of  Professors  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  evil  ;  on  Conformities  to 
the  World  ;  on  the  Conduct  of  Professors  in  reference  to  Politics  ;  on  Brotherly  Love  ;  the  Influence 
of  Professors  ;  their  Conduct  towards  Unconverted  Relatives;  the  Unmarried  Professor  ;  the  Profea- 
sor  in  Prosperity  ;  in  Adversity  ;  the  Conduct  of  Professors  away  from  Home  ;  the  Backsliding  Pro- 
fessor ;  on  the  necessity  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  Influence  to  sustain  the  Christian  Profession  ;  the  Dyimj 
Professor."  —  New-  York  Observer. 

THE  ANXIOUS  ENQUIRER  AFTER  SALVATION 
Directed  and  Encouraged.    By  Rev.  John  Angell  James.     1  vol.  18mo. 

Twenty  thousand  copies  of  this  excellent  little  volume  have  already  been  sold,  which  fully  attests 
the  high  estimation  the  work  has  attained  with  the  religious  community. 

HAPPINESS,  ITS  NATURE  AND  SOURCES. 

By  Rev,  John  Angell  James.     1  vol.  32mo. 

"This  is  written  in  the  excellent  author's  best  vein.  He  has,  with  a  searching  fidelity,  exposed  th« 
various  unsatisfying  expedients  by  which  the  natural  heart  seeks  to  attain  the  great  end  and  aim  of 
all  —  happiness,  and  with  powerful  and  touching  exhortations  directed  it  to  the  never-failing  source  of 
all  good.  The  author  does  not  engage  himself  in  speculations  or  theories.  The  results  of  extended 
observation,  the  testimony  of  well-attested  experience,  are  arrayed,  in  the  light  of  which  the  true  way 
and  the  false  are  clearly  se'en.  It  is  eloquently  and  pointedly  written.  A  better  book  we  have  not  in 
u  long  time  seen."  —  Evangelist. 

THE  WIDOW  DIRECTED 

To  the  Widow's  G-od.    By  the  Rev.  John  Angell  James.     1  vol.  18mo. 

"  If  any  thing  more  were  necessary  to  give  this  book  currency  with  the  Christian  community  than 
the  name  of  its  author,  we  should  have  it  in  the  peculiarly  tender  and  interesting  nature  of  the  subject 
on  which  he  writes.  He  has  written  many  good  books,  and  all  belong  to  the  same  general  class  ;  and 
though  some  of  them  are  more  generally  applicable  than  this,  yet  in  no  one,  perhaps,  has  he  discover- 
ed a  more  skilful  hand,  or  a  more  tender  and  devout  spirit.  The  book  is  worthy  to  be  read  by  others 
besides  the  class  for  which  it  is  especially  designed  ;  and  we  doubt  not  that  it  is  destined  to  come  as  a 
friendly  visiter  to  many  a  house  of  mourning,  and  as  a  healing  balm  to  many  a  wounded  heart."-—  ff.Y. 
Observer, 


VALUABLE  PUBLICATIONS.  11 

WORKS   BY  THE   REV.   DR.  SPRAGUE. 

TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

Lectures  Illustrating  the  Contrast  between  True  Christianity  and  various  other  systems.  By 
William  B.  Sprague,  D.D.  1  vol.  12mo. 

LECTURES  ON  REVIVALS  IN  RELIG-IOINT. 
By  W.  B.  Sprague,  D.D.    With  an  Introductory  Essay  by  Leonard  Woods,  D.D.    1  vol.  12mo 

LETTERS  TO  A  DAUGHTER, 

On  Practical  Subjects.  By  W.  B.  Spragae,  D.D.  Fourth  edition,  revised  and  enlarged. 
1  vol.  12mo. 

LECTURES  TO  YOUNG-  PEOPLE. 

By  W.  B.  Sprague,  D.D.  With  an  Introductory  Address.  By  Samuel  Miller,  D.D.  Fourth 
edition.  1  vol.  12mo. 

The  writings  of  Dr.  Sprague  are  too  well  known,  and  too  highly  estimated  by  the  Christian  com- 
munity generally,  to  require  any  other  encomium  than  is  furnished  by  their  own  merits  ;  for  this  rea- 
son it  is  thought  unnecessary  to  subjoin  the  favourable  testimonies  borne  to  their  utility  and  excel- 
lence by  the  whole  circle  of  the  periodical  press  of  this  country,  arid  the  fact  that  they  have  each 
passed  through  several  editions  in  England,  sufficiently  attests  the  estimation  in  which  they  are  held 
abroad. 

WILLIAMS'S  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISES. 

A  Narrative  of  Missionary  Enterprises  and  Triumphs  in  the  South  Seas,  with  Remarks  upon 
the  Natural  History  of  the  Islands,  Origin,  Language,  Tradition,  and  Usages  of  the  Inhabi- 
tants. By  the  Rev.  John  Williams,  of  the  London  Missionary  Society. 

Numerous  plates.     1  vol.  large  12mo. 

"  We  have  been  greatly  delighted  with  this  work.  And  if  asked,  why 'J  we  answer,  because  it 
furnishes  the  most  full  and  satisfactory  account  of  Polynesia,  the  isles  of  the  Pacific,  we  have  any 
•where  met  with.  2.  Tt  relates  facts,  occurrences,  and  incidents,  of  which  the  author  was  eye  and  ear 
•witness.  3.  It  inckiently  gives  a  full-length  portrait  of  the  missionary  character  of  the  present  age  ;  a 
portrait,  that  even  Satan  must  admire,  though  '  he  cannot  love.'  4.  It  fairly  developes  the  true  spirit 
of  the  Christian  missions,  arid  the  principles  on  which  they  are  successfully  conducted.  5.  It  exhibits 
the  astonishing  power  of  the  gospel  in  the  transformation  of  the  most  degraded  class  of  human  beings. 
6.  It  evinces  the  inseparable  connexion  between  Christianity  and  civilization  ;  between  the  gospel  re- 
ceived, and  man's  present  happiness,  7.  It  illustrates  the  grace  of  God,  as  displayed  in  the  triumphant 
death  of  heathen  converts.  8  It  exposes  the  ignorance  and  wickedness  of  those  who  misrepresent  the 
design  and  operations  of  Christian  missions.  9.  It  demonstrates  that  the  '  isles  of  the  sea'  are  waiting 
for  God's  law,  and  that  God's  time  has  come  for  their  conversion.  10.  It  urges  powerfully  to  greatly- 
enlarged  effort  for  the  '  immediate  emancipation '  of  all  the  slaves  of  Satan  from  the  bondage  of  thou- 
sands of  years. 

"  Besides  these,  we  might  state  many  other  reasons  for  our  high  satisfaction  with  this  transatlantic 
volume.  It  is  written  in  a  style  of  great  simplicity,  in  a  spirit  of  great  meekness,  in  a  tone  of  candour 
and  modesty,  that  we  much  admire.  It  conveys  no  small  amount  of  valuable  geographical  and  geolo- 
gical information  ;  much  of  it  new  to  us,  and  probably  to  others.  It  is  replete  with  distinct  references 
to  the  hand  of  Divine  Providence,  and  with  devout  reflections,  that  render  it  valuable,  even  as  an  *  aid 
to  devotion.'  It  is  throughout  highly  attractive  for  the  variety  of  its  matter,  for  the  fairness  of  its 
occasional  discussions  on  some  mooted  questions  of  natural  history,  &c.,  for  the  light  it  throws  on  tha 
social  condition  of  different  tiibes  of  savages,  and  their  intellectual  character,  and  for  the  continuity 
of  the  whole  story. 

"  Other  minds  may  not  be  affected  like  our  own.  But  if  the  practised  reader  of  novels  and  romances 
finds  the  charms  of  fiction  working  as  powerfully  to  withdraw  his  mind  from  all  things  around  him,  as 
we  have  found  the  charms  of  these  authentic  '  Missionary  Enterprises '  working  on  ourselves,  we  won- 
der not  at  his  attachment  to  them,  however  unjustifiable  it  may  be.  After  once  entering  fairly  into 
the  spirit  of  the  narrative,  it  is  hardly  possible  for  us  to  conceive  of  a  pious  mind  that  can  '  let  it  go  ' 
till  it  shall  have  been  '  devoured.'  "—Evangelist. 

MISSIONARY'S  FAREWELL. 

By  the  Rev.  John  Williams,  author  of  "  Missionary  Enterprises,"  &c. 
1  vol.  18nio. 

THE  MARTYRED  MISSIONARIES. 

Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Munson  and  the  Rev.  Henry  Lyman,  late  Missionaries  to  the 
Indian  Archipelago,  with  the  Journal  of  their  Exploring  Tour.  By  the  Rev.  William 
Thompson.  1  vol.  12mo. 

DISCOURSES  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM. 

Select  Discourses  on  the  Functions  of  the  Nervous  System,  in  owosition  to  Fhrenoiogy, 
Materialism  and  Atheism  ;  to  which  is  prefixed  a  Lecture  on  tho  Diversities  of  the  ^"man 
Character,  arising  from  Physiological  Peculiarities.  By  John  Augustine  Smith,  M.D, 

1  vol.  12mo. 


MODERN  ARCHITECTURE 


AND  HAND-RAIL  CONSTRUCTION 


. 

Villas.    Fifteen  Plates.     1  vol.  large  8vo. 

HODGE  ON  THE  STEAM-ENGINE. 

.nd  construct  a  machine  oi  any  re  ,  .-endenn"  the   reference  from  the  letter-press  to  ihe 

JUS  alications  of  steam,     tor  the  ,        o  e     Me     «"»-   tne  g         ale  vol  in  the  foij0  form. 


SEiSH:5lS^:^^s^ 

fully  tested."—  Courier  4-  Engwtrfr. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  DIAGNOSIS. 

Bv  MarshaU  Hall,  M  D.  F.R.S.,  &c.     Second  edition,  with  many  improvements,  By  U 
John  A.  Sweet. 


Th,s  ™*  ,M  p,     ;«  . 

who  were  anxious  that  it  should  be  bnm|tt  w  Him  i  tne  subject,  and  as  being  calculated 


deplored. 


half  bound. 

HAZEN'S  SYMBOLICAL  SPELLING-BOOK. 
The  Symbolical  Spelling-Book,  in  two  parts.    By  Edward  Hazen. 

Containing  288  engravings. 

MY  SON'S  MANUAL. 
of  the  Studies,  Accomplishments,  and  Principles  of  Conduct,  best  smt, 

»  ^e18ff  antly  eusraved  frontispiece- 

MY  DAUGHTER'S  MANUAL. 

Compvisin,  a  Summary  View  of  Female  Stud.es,  Accomplishments,  and  Principles  of  Conduct. 
tiful  frontispiece.      '  Ivol.lSmo. 

ELLA  V  --  5 

Or  the  July  Tour.    By  one  of  the  party,.    Ivol.l2mo. 
«  He  can  form  a  moral  on  a  glass  of  chanipa?ne."-I-e  Roy. 

CRUDEN'S  CONCORDANCE. 
Containing  all  the  Words  to  be  found  in  the  large  Work  relating  to  the  New  Testamer 

1  vol.  18mo. 

THE  POLYMICRIAN  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
Numerous  References,  Maps,  &c.    1  vol.  18mo, 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


27Mar6lG 


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APR  2  9  1961 


IIRRARY  USE 


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LOAN  D. 


LD  21A-50w-12,' 


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